Ship name
The ship name is the name of a ship or boat . The name of the vehicle is recorded in the ship's certificate or equivalent ship's papers and is attached to the ship. The size of the characters follows national and international rules. Usually the name is officially announced when the ship is christened.
history
How old is the custom of naming ships cannot be determined with certainty. In addition to the mythological names of ships ( Argos - Argonauts ), Thucydides (III.77,3) also mentions ship names in the real world, Salaminia and Paralos , in ancient times . In the Viking Age, outstanding ships have been handed down with their names. A number of ship names have also come down to us from the 14th century. These include, for example, the Hamburg Schnigge Bunte Kuh on the Simon von Utrecht 1400–1401, the Vitalienbrüder Klaus Störtebeker and Gödeke Michels (on the Seetiger ), or the Niña and Pinta , with which Columbus sailed to America. Ship names are still used today to identify ships.
Interpretation of ship names
Ship names are usually chosen in such a way that the ship name has a meaning for the ship owner. These meanings often contain wishes for the ship ( Fortuna , Felicitas etc.), memories of people ( Gorch Fock , Friedrich the Great , Blücher etc.), geographical names, animal names, names from mysticism and many other areas.
In Northern Europe and North America, ship names are mostly female, especially when it comes to ships that are named after people or geographical terms (the "Eisenhower", the "Hamburg"). Ships named after an expression with an article (for example animals, astronomical terms) normally retain the gender (the "ram", the "ferret"), but the feminine form can also be used (the " Arrow"). In Romance and Slavic languages, the gender of the name is retained. The Austrian seaman's language (until 1918) is based on it - there was the “Szent Istvan”, the “Empress Elisabeth”, the “Sankt Georg” and the “Vienna” (from: the city) .
Tradition of ship names
It is particularly common in the military sector to pass on ship names. This corresponds to the custom that units of the land forces also accumulate their deeds in a long-standing tradition. As a result, a warship inherits the merits of its predecessors. The US Secretary of the Navy said of the construction of the third aircraft carrier named Enterprise in 2012: “[…] For 51 years [note: since the CVN 65 was put into service in 1961] the name has been synonymous with strength, commitment and a spirit of adventure. Our fleet has seldom been without a ship of that name. I have chosen to keep this tradition alive, not only because of the legacy it invokes, but because the mission of the Enterprise name is not yet complete patriotic feeling in general. It is also typical that deserving names gradually rise to higher and higher classes of ship (e.g. the British Victorious from the third-rate liner in 1785 to an aircraft carrier and then a nuclear submarine since 1993). Conversely, ship names with negative connotations - unlucky due to shipwreck or shameful due to military failure - are often carried on in a smaller class or even deleted from the names of an armed force.
Another tradition is to name ships of a class or group similarly. For example, ships of a shipping company (such as the well-known Hamburg “ Flying P-Liner ” Padua, Pamir, Passat and others from the interwar period) or those of a boat class (such as the British Broadsword class with “B”, later “C”) begin with the same initial letter , or they get all animal names , city names and the like.
Legal
Germany
All ships longer than 15 meters and sailing under the German flag on German shipping lanes must be entered in the shipping register, whereupon a ship certificate is issued. The ship's name and home port of the ship are entered in it as a unique identifier. The ship's name, which is entered in the ship's register and in the ship's certificate, as well as the home port indicated there must be attached to the ship.
Switzerland
In Switzerland , only passenger ships have to bear a name with which they are entered in the relevant inland shipping register. For boats and yachts, on the other hand, a number comparable to the Swiss car number is assigned by the cantonal shipping authorities as the official registration number. However, most ships have a name on their stern. If a ship is registered for ocean voyages in the Swiss Ship Register in Basel, the name is the sole identifier. The Maritime Administration requires that all registered names are unique. Only ships of the same owner are allowed to have similar names - e.g. only differing by a number.
Handling of ship names
The owner of a ship usually determines the ship's name. The assignment of a ship name is not tied to a minimum size - for model ships , the original name of the ship is usually used. In the case of small boats , ships or similar small vehicles , the naming usually focuses on the ship's christening. For larger watercraft , naming is usually arranged in advance. The first step here is the application for the issue of the ship's certificates. A special date in this context is the laying of the keel . The important moment when the name is given to the public happens when the ship is christened , which often, but not always, takes place during the launch. The first ship name can be followed by other names due to renaming (which are often made in the context of changes of ownership).
Additions to the ship's name are called prefixes . These can indicate the type of propulsion, the use or the marine assignment of a ship. In addition to the ship's name, there are often other identifiers that can be traced back, for example, to fishing registers , marine ship IDs or other registration offices. In some publications (especially in reference works) to differentiate between ships that have the same name, the year of launch or other name additions are added to the ship's name.
See also
literature
- Gerhard Breuer Public Maritime Law. 1st edition. de Gruyter, 1991, ISBN 3-11-009655-2 , pp. 160, 161 “Name and other distinguishing features of the ship”, books.google.de
- Flag Law Ordinance (FlRV) (PDF; 342 kB) Federal Ministry of Justice
- Rolf Herber: Maritime Trade Law. ISBN 978-3-11-016311-7 , p. 94, paragraph 3 (on the use of the ship's name), books.google.de
- R. Simek: ship names. In: Johannes Hoops, Heinrich Beck: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. 2., revised. Edition. Volume 27, Walter de Gruyter, 2004, ISBN 3-11-018116-9 , pp. 75-78. (books.google.de)
- August Köster: The ancient sea creatures . de Gruyter, 1969, ISBN 3-11-001356-8 , pp. 134, 135. (Reprint of the 1923 edition) (books.google.de)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Duden / German Universal Dictionary. 2nd Edition. 1989, ISBN 3-411-02176-4 , p. 1318.
- ↑ Ralf Uka: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: The launch of the Kalami Star and the meaning of other ship names. ) (PDF)
- ↑ Duden: The grammar. 7th, completely new and expanded edition. Volume 4, Mannheim / Leipzig / Vienna / Zurich 2005, p. 163, rule 247.
- ↑ “ […] For 51 years its name has been synonymous with boldness, readiness and an adventurous spirit. Rarely has our fleet been without a ship bearing the name. I chose to maintain this tradition not solely because of the legacy it invokes, but because the remarkable work of the name Enterprise is not done. " Navy's Next Ford-Class Aircraft Carrier to be Named Enterprise . US Department of Defense, Release No: 937-12, December 1, 2012 (on defense.gov, translation Wikipedia).
- ↑ Law on the flag law of seagoing vessels and the flag management of inland waterway vessels (Flag Law Law) § 9. Accessed on January 25, 2011 .
- ↑ Gorch Fock (I) / (II) The double "Gorch Fock" . ngz-online.de; Retrieved September 14, 2009.
- ↑ Ship names with annual supplements at SchiffsSpotter.de; Retrieved September 17, 2009.