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Comment by greggyb | Hacker News Reader

This excerpt is truly one of the best things I've read recently:

> It stems from a somewhat bizarre British government decision, taken during World War II, to reclassify some of its more remote island possessions as ships. Tristan was transmuted into HMS Atlantic Isle, and its role was to patrol (from its rock-hewn state of immobility) for any German U-boats that might be lurking in the southern Atlantic. To compound the fantasy a small party of sailors was posted there to man the ship

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A better one:

"For though I sedulously followed the rule of taking nothing and leaving nothing, it suddenly seemed to me that my very being on the island, and my later decision to record my impressions of that visit and the impressions of earlier visitors, had resulted in a series of entirely unintended and unanticipated consequences—consequences that were as inimical to the islanders’ contentment as if I had plundered or polluted there.

"I had no understanding whatsoever that by repeating that naval officer’s memoir, I could hurt the feelings of anyone. To my clumsy, unthinking, touristic mind, the notion seemed quite absurd. To be sure, old Kenneth Rogers had explained it to me kindly—but I had chosen to ignore his warning, to dismiss his assertion of feeling. I had failed, even for one second, to consider what he and his fellow islanders might think—because I held to an unspoken assumption that as a visitor from the sophisticated outside, I knew better, and that I had something of a prescriptive right to do with him and his like, more or less as I pleased...."

Referring to land bases as HMS dates from 1805.

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

Which doesn't negate the reason for this particular decision of course.

Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsinkable_aircraft_carrier

My grandfather once told me the story of a Nazi propaganda broadcast which attempted to damage British morale by (falsely) announcing the sinking of a "ship", only to backfire when they used the name of a stone frigate.

Unfortunately I can't find any reference online, so the story may be apocryphal; has anyone else heard this?

How would this backfire? -by revealing the truth to soldiers in propaganda controlled media? -by not allowing for fake news to enter news circulation in Britain? -or maybe to try to uncover the truth in state owned German newspapers?

I don't see any field for backfiring.

By making the Germans seem ridiculous to the British, rather than demoralizing the British.

Forgive me, but to me what sounds like propaganda is the story itself, as in "Ah ah, those dumb liars got caught" in a lie they never told ...

I recall that during the first Gulf War, Iraqi propaganda broadcasts were telling American servicemen that their wives and girlfriends back home were carrying on with Bart Simpson.

Here you go: http://www.ukings.ca/hmcs-kings-wardroom

They apparently claimed to have sunk.... a college.

Edit: Also, http://www.secret-tunnels.co.uk/FwdH-Haw.htm

Either it's apocryphal or the kriegsmarine had a knack for making silly announcements. I'm inclined to think the former, and that it was more likely black propaganda to make the enemy appear stupid.

Replying to myself since it's too late to edit: /r/AskHistorians came through with this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/344o4f/ww2_ge...

The U.S. Navy has also been known to do this. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Desert_Ship_(LLS-1)

I wonder if it has something to do with the career advancement of the service members who are stationed there, i.e., if there is some sort of higher prestige (or pay) for people who have served on a ship.

Yes. Officers above a certain rank have to be on a "rated" ship, and IIRC the stone frigates were all 4th-rates, which meant a senior Post Captain (later just a captain) could be in command there and not lose his seniority. And in fact, the first stone frigate command (of a rock in the Atlantic) was given to the lieutenant who had led the assault that took the island. Since the act gave him promotion to Captain, he couldn't command his old cutter anymore, so they came up with the stone frigate idea. Later on it became more of an unofficial punishment; a way to take a commander who was too senior to just keep on the beach and put him somewhere that he wouldn't do too much harm.

For any "Master and Commander" book series fans, Jack was threatened with being sent off to a stone frigate in I think "The Yellow Admiral".

A practical application of duck typing. Both are a bunch of dry people surrounded by water. @anchor is a constant for one and a variable for the other.

"And what else floats in water?"

"Bread"

"Apples"

"Very small islands"

The British MOD's Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment at Dounreay in Caithness in the north of Scotland used to be known as HMS Vulcan [0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dounreay#Vulcan_NRTE

No effing way. I'm sorry, no way. This is like the Simpsons with:

  Homer, I'm in a rhubarb of a pickle of a jam here.
  I was all set to go off on vacation when I get called up for jury duty.
  Oh, it's a corker of a case.
  Seems a man drove up onto a traffic island and hit a decorative rowboat full of geraniums.
  Now they're trying it as a maritime offense.

The Royal Australian Navy does this too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Stirling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Albatross_%28air_station%2...

My personal favourite is HMAS Harman - located about 100km from the ocean...

https://encrypted.google.com/maps?q=HMAS+harman&hl=fr&ll=-35...

Don't forget HMAS Cerberus[0] which is also a suburb.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Cerberus_%28naval_base%29

Appears to be a legal oddity. Renaming the islands to boats must have seemed an easy solution at the time.

>Under section 67 of the Naval Discipline Act 1866, the provisions of the act only applied to officers and men of the Royal Navy borne on the books of a warship.

Hasn't the US done this too, even if not recently then at least historically?

The Royal Navy still does this today though.

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