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Comment by geromek | Hacker News Reader

The story is more complex than the article says. A Spanish forum (one of the top-40 more visited sites in Spain) voted massively the name "Blas de Lezo" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blas_de_Lezo ) a Spanish admiral who in 1741 defeated a British Army far bigger than his own one.

After gaining the #1 position the organization decided to withdraw the name from the polling, causing more controversy about this digital process.

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Certainly one of the funniest stories to pop-up in the interwebs during the last year..

> A band of Spanish net buccaneers has mounted a determined incursion into Her Maj's territorial cyberwaters by demanding that Blighty's forthcoming Royal Research Ship be named the RRS Blas de Lezo, in honour of the man who administered the British a serious military shoeing during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/29/boaty_mcboatface_spa...

It was going to win, so they had to shut down the candidacy. Not even the brits can handle the power of roto2...

TIL there was a War of Jenkins' Ear...

If you believe it would have been outrageous that this man had his name in a british ship, you'll be surprised by the shitstorm that would happen if his name would be given to a spanish ship.

According to Wikipedia, several Spanish ships have been named after him.

Has been. Try it now and see what happens.

Please explain.

Among other things, I guess those of us who don't know every piece of trivia about Spanish culture would get an explanation of what exactly is unsavory about this Blas de Lezo person.

You had it in the Wikipedia article linked by the op.

Edit... anyway: De Lezo took part in the Spanish Sucession War. In that war, Catalonia lost some fueros (middle ages common law) because it was against the Borbons (that won) and in the revisionist version of history that we're hearing in very recent years, that's tantamount to genocide.

Thanks, that was the explanation you could have given several posts ago. While skimming the Wikipedia article, I noted that he got a statue in Madrid, then skipped the rest of that paragraph, which was the only one that hinted at this controversy, and even then did not give the reason you give here. Please excuse us for not following the Spanish news so closely, and then downvoting you for your sheer arrogance.

My sheer arrogance considers you excused.

Is "2004" considered close enough to "now"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_de_Baz%C3%A1n-clas...

No.

OK, keep downvoting. I couldn't care less. Do you think I'm being too terse? Take a look at the last edit. Or is it something else? I don't care either way.

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