HMS Dainty but deadly

QUESTION Is HMS Dainty the daftest ship name?

THE name Dainty originates from the late 16th century. Sir Richard Hawkins built a ship in 1588 that his stepmother named The Repentance.

The ship was on the Thames at Deptford when ‘the Queenes Majestie passing by her, to her pallace of Greenwych, commanded her bargemen to row round about her, and viewing her from post to stemme, disliked nothing but her name’.

According to Hawkins’ account, ‘[the Queen] said that shee would christen her anew, and that henceforth shee should be called the Daintie; which name she brooked as well for her proportion and grace, as for the many happie voyages shee made in Her Majesties service’.

The ship’s crest was derived from a fan included in a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, and the vessel had the motto Dulce Quod Utile (‘it is pleasant if it is useful’).

There have been four HMS Daintys over the years, including a 17th-century sailing ship and a D-Class destroyer sunk at Tobruk in 1941. The last Dainty was a Daring-class destroyer launched in the Isle of Wight in 1950 and in commission until she was retired in 1969.

For those of us who sailed in her — myself from 1965 to 1967 — she was ‘Dainty, but deadly’. Of the three seagoing ships I was in during my time in the Royal Navy, she was the best.

The thriving HMS Dainty Association includes men who served in her from 1950 to 1969, as well as family members. We held our latest reunion in Portsmouth.

Dainty may be a prissy name, but the ships of the original Daring-class destroyers packed a powerful punch and were the envy of the world’s navies in the 1950s and 1960s.

We are proud to have served in her. We are the Dainty!

Tony Middleton, Hon Treasurer, HMS Dainty Association, Cambourne, Cambs. DAINTY may be an unusual name for a ship, but no dafter than Fancy (1806 and 1855) or Flirt (1592 and 1782).

In the late 16th century, when the first Dainty was commissioned, it wouldn’t have been HMS Dainty, as HMS didn’t come into use until 1789, HMS Phoenix being the first on record.

Many a Royal Navy ship has had a name that might be regarded as daft or quaint rather than fearsome. However, it must be borne in mind that the meaning of some words has changed over the centuries. At one time, dainty meant excellent.

Here are some of the least fearsome ship names: Beauty, Blonde, Cherub, Cheerful, Charity, Child’s Play, Clown, Coquette, Delight, Hearty, Honesty, Jolly, Joyful, Lively, Pert, Pet, Plumper, Spanker, Tickler and Vanity. The World War II troopship HMT Carry On might have inspired the film franchise.

Ships with other names not likely to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy include those named after fish, such as Haddock and Mackerel, and the flowers Peony, Primrose and Violet.

Robert Sutherland, Northampton.

QUESTION Why are rails joined by a solid weld rather than a traditional fishplate?

JOINTED rails with fishplates require frequent manual attention to maintain the gap correctly, and lubrication to allow the rails to expand in hot weather. The impact of trains passing over the gaps can lead to dips in the ballast, which then requires repacking.

Welded rails are installed under stress, allowing for high temperatures, and held in place by stronger fixings, heavier sleepers and deeper ballast, thus removing the need for gaps over long stretches of track.

They also permit a smoother and quieter ride for trains, leading to less wear and tear on wheels and suspensions. Andrew Royle, railway engineer,

High Wycombe, Bucks.

TRADITIONALLY, rails were joined using fishplates, which are metal plates about 14in long with four holes, bolted each side of the rail ends to secure them together and keep them in line.

As steel expands and contracts with temperature variations, the fishplates need to slide on the ends of the rails. The bolts have to be at the correct torque — tight enough to ensure the rails remain aligned yet loose enough to allow the rails to move with expansion and contraction. As a result, maintenance was more labour intensive than with all-welded rail.

Tony Cashmore, Nuneaton, Warks.

QUESTION Why was Oxford University’s 1933 King and Country debate so controversial?

ON FEBRUARY 9, 1933 — just ten days after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany — David Graham, the librarian of the Oxford Union debating society, drafted and seconded a motion affirming ‘this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country’.

The motion was passed by 275 to 153. While many of the votes cast were influenced, in liberal fashion, by the quality of the arguments put forward, the debate caused a furore.

It was denounced in the Press and a group of irate Oxford undergraduates stormed into the Union and ripped the minutes of the debate out of the record book.

Winston Churchill, who felt it weakened Britain abroad, refused to speak at the Union ‘until its members acquire a sense of responsibility’.

The speech was used for propaganda purposes in Italy at the time of the Abyssinian War in 1935.

Italian newspapers bolstered the courage of their readers by declaring they need have no fear of British action as their young men had refused to fight.

K. L. Morris, Wolverhampton.

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