Wild guess: something to do with the Berlin air-lift?
dan, the berlin airlift started in june 1948.
It was indeed a wild guess! Looks like I need to brush up on my world history?
Thanks for the correction.
no problem. i had a $100 bet with a co-worker born in germany who said the airlift was in the early 50’s. needless to say he lost but i only took $50 of that bet.
The Berlin Airlift is indeed not the answer, but you can’t fault a guy for trying. Hey - if I didn’t already know the answer, I’d never be able to guess it.
Wow - I came across this item in a state of desperation, thanks to the magnanimity of our friend schoonerbumm, who left me holding the trivia pursestrings. [:P] I had no idea it would prove a poser, but I won’t give in and spill the beans yet. Maybe another hint tomorrow. [:)]
I believe the question refers to four former Danish torpedo boats destroyed in an explosion in Flensburg in 1945. A detailed description of the incident can be found here:
http://www.navalhistory.dk/english/history/1945_1989/explosioninflensburg(1945).htm
The investigation determined the explosion to be an accident in the “murphy’s law” category. I had never heard of this incident before tackling this question. Very good piece of history and interesting account of immediate post-war conditions.
Tom S.
eagle, i think you got it.
This will probably be easier than it looks:
New Question:
All seven of the ironclad gunboats of this very successful class were accepted into service before either the USS Monitor or CSS Virginia was launched. The seven were so identical that different color bands were painted on the stacks to tell them apart. What were these ships collectively nicknamed. You get extra credit for the name of the man who built them and tell what else he was famous for.
Tom S.
Whoops - annoying old work gets in the way again!
Yes, eaglecentral gets it indeed, and with the same article I stumbled across.
The article is very interesting and thorough - and I am very glad that someone found it. I was at a loss as to what my next hint would be. [#toast]
alumni72,
I sincerely apologize for jumping the gun with a new question without your OK. Please forgive this monstrous blunder and break of protocol. [8]
Tom S.
Think nothing of it - we’re here for the fun of it, after all. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen - two questions instead of one? [:D]
Besides, I didn’t even realize I had missed an entire day!
Tom,
I think that you are referring to “Pook’s Turtles”, seven ironclad river gunboats built in 1861, officialy refered to as the City Class, sometimes the Cairo Class.
I believe that the Cairo was the first vessel to be sunk by a mine.
I can still remember a model of the Cairo that I saw in St. Louis, Missouri, in about 1968 when I was still an impressionable adolescent. I thought to myself, I can do better than that… it was really an ugly model!
That, among other things, led to my first 1/96th Cutty Sark, the next Christmas.
schoonerbumm,
Bull’s eye!! Right on every count. And right about the mine too. How did the Cutty Sark turn out? When I was a kid, all models turned out great!
The Cairo class or city class river gunboats. Designed by Samuel Pook and known as Pook’s Turtles. The ships were built on speculation by James Eads, who in 1874, built a bridge across the Mississippi River at St Louis that was at the time the worlds longest arch bridge. He was the first engineer to use hydraulic caissons to sink the bridge piers and as a by-product, discovered what came to be known as caissons disease, or the bends. The bridge is still in use.
You can see the St Louis arch in the background of this picture taken from the East St Louis side of the Mississippi river. When Ead’s drove one of the piers down through the mud, his men had to dig through a sunken riverboat to find bedrock.
schoonerbumm, the next question is yours.
Since we are coming up on Pearl Harbor Day, here is another Hawaiian naval history question (remember Mad Jack Percival Day!).
Long before the raid on Pearl Harbor, another American vessel was involved in a sneak attack in the Hawaiian Islands and was involved in active island warfare, not just self defense, using cannon.
Name the vessel and summarize her unusual story.
Looks like nobody wants to play, Alan - or maybe nobody wants to remember one of your less glorious episodes?
Rick
But, it was a most glorious episode…
…unlike that episode at Trafalgar where, even though a lot of press and a tremendous amount of tradition were created, it took another seven years to settle matters, a kingdom was built from this episode. 
USS Boston was the ship whose sailors and marines were responsible for the ending of the Hawaiian monarchy. I think you might be looking for the name of a whaler, I cannot find it at the moment.
I still prefer to think of them as the Sandwich Islands!
Rick
Rick,
And the Sandwich Islanders probably would still prefer to think of Europeans as something to put in a sandwich…
Subfixer,
The question refers to events well before the end of the monarchy, but as usual, someone may find other valid answers. After I posted the question, it occurred to me that there is a second answer, that I know of.