UN Ship Names

4 posts ยท Oct 20 1999 to Oct 20 1999

From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 11:59:57 -0400

Subject: UN Ship Names

I believe all those with good recollection will recall an excellent discussion
on this had a year or two back in the archives. It focused on
a very wonderful and fruitful central conception - Earth. It is the one
commonality of all races and nations in the GZGverse.

We had ship classes named after rivers, seas, oceans, mountain ranges, island
chains, continents, lakes, deserts, volcanoes, glaciers, cities, nations, etc.
I think there was talk of naming things after Sol system bodies too.

The "scale" or "majesty" of the particular sub-scheme determined the
class of ship.

This was a near universally acceptable naming scheme, and didn't try to single
out individuals which is frought with politics in the UN setting. Neither was
it limiting in focus (ships such as Bureacrat class, or the Administrator
Class....). It also had a huge range of names to use as Earth has lots of
things.

The neat things about these classes is you can set reasonably clear boundaries
for what defines a viable name.

Some examples:
The Continent-Class SDN: UNS North America, UNS South America, UNS
Europe, UNS Africa, UNS Asia, UNS Pangea

The Glacier-Class DNs: UNS Columbia,

The Volcano-Class BDNs: UNS Krakatoa, UNS Saint Helens, UNS Vesuvius,
UNS Penatumbo

The Range-Class BBs: UNS Himalayas, UNS Rocky Mountains, UNS Alps

The Mountain-Class BCs: UNS K9, UNS Everest, UNS McKinley, UNS Pakenham

The Ocean-Class CVs: UNS North Atlantic, UNS South Pacific, UNS Indian

The Sea-Class CVAs: UNS Black Sea, UNS Red Sea, UNS Mediterranean, UNS
Dead Sea, UNS Sea of Galilee

The Great Lakes-Class CVSs: UNS Lake Ontario, UNS Lake Huron, UNS Lake
Michigan, UNS Lake Superior

The Lake-Class CVLs: UNS Lake of the Woods, UNS Lac Deschenes, UNS Lake
on the Mountain, UNS Lake Louise

The River-Class CVEs: UNS Mississippi, UNS Kitchissippi, UNS Yellow
River, UNS Yanghtze, UNS Nile

The Capital-Class BCs: UNS Ottawa, UNS Washington, UNS Rome, UNS Paris,
UNS Berlin, UNS Peking, UNS Moscow

The Major City-Class CHs: UNS Toronto, UNS Detroit, UNS New York, UNS
Bristol, UNS Sydney, UNS Christchurch

The City-Class CEs: UNS Kingston, UNS Albany, UNS Bemiji, UNS Great
Falls, UNS Syracuse

The Town-Class CLs: UNS Napanee, UNS Aylmer, UNS Dunmore, UNS Alice
Springs, UNS La Havre, UNS Varadero

The Island Chain-Class DDs: UNS Carribean, UNS Azores, UNS Thousand
Islands

The Archipelago-Class FFs: UNS Gallapagos, etc.

The Island-Class CVs: UNS Hawaii, UNS England, UNS New Guinea (maybe
some of these aren't)

The Scientist-Class Science Vessels: UNS Hawking, UNS Einstein, UNS
Mendel, UNS Darwin, UNS Neils Bohr

The Near Star Class Division Transport: UNS Sol, UNS Barnard, UNS Van Maaen,
UNS Alpha Centauri

The Solar Body Class Battalion Transport: UNS Mercury, UNS Mars, UNS Jupiter,
UNS Saturn, UNS Novy Moskva, etc.

The Lunar Class Company Assault Ship: UNS Luna, UNS Io, UNS Callisto, UNS
Ganymede (and names of other outsystem moons)

No doubt other systems of naming could be used, but this one has by far (I
think) the most options while being perhaps less controversial than most,
something the UN constantly strives for.

T.

From: Steven M Goode <gromit+@C...>

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 12:25:49 -0400 (EDT)

Subject: Re: UN Ship Names

Excerpts from mail: 20-Oct-99 UN Ship Names by Thomas t. C. Barclay@hom
> We had ship classes named after rivers, seas, oceans, mountain ranges,

<SNIP>

Good idea! Some of the specific names you listed are rather
American/Western-specific, though.  And I'd shy away from naming ship
types after man-made features.  I'd stick with natural features.  Also,
you could go up in scale:

From: Brian Quirt <baqrt@m...>

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 14:02:45 -0300

Subject: Re: UN Ship Names

> Thomas Barclay of the Clan Barclay wrote:

[snip of assorted class names]

I like this, especially because it also allows for some 'astronomical humour'
in the class names. For example:

> The Lunar Class Company Assault Ship: UNS Luna, UNS Io, UNS Callisto,

UNS 1989-N1, UNS 1989-N2...(moons of Neptune discovered by Voyager-
there are more of these than there are 'named' moons- or at least were
the last time I checked).

From: Indy Kochte <kochte@s...>

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 13:40:51 -0500 (EST)

Subject: Re: UN Ship Names

> <SNIP>

Just a minor point for ship-namers, 'Ross' isn't a standalone name
for a star. The Ross stars are named after an astronomer named Ross, and are
typically numbered (eg Ross 128, 154, 248, etc). These are
typically high-proper motion stars (I don't know offhand any other
properties these stars share).

A good source for star names (and other astro info), check out Chris Dolan's
page on Stars & Constellations:

   http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/

Another page, which has a link to a table of starnames w/translations,
is Starname hosted by Steve Gibson:

   http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/starnames/

And if you can't find enough named stars in there...  ;-)

Mk