Potential Future or Current Ship Names

Jonathan_S wrote:

saber964 wrote:Hawking died trying to defend an ad hoc convoy against overwhelming odds so that the civilian merchants could have a chance to escape. It was the same thing when Helen Zilwicki Sr died. IIRC Zilwicki had 2 CL's and 3 DD's vs 6 CA's.

I don't see it as quite the same because (as much as it would be a violation of their duty, and against the traditions of the RMN) Helen Zilwicki Sr had choices. It was physically possible for the escort to run away (not that pretty much any RMN officer would), and picked a battle plan that maximized the chance of laming the pursuers even though it exposed the escort command to greater risks (turn broadside in a grav wave; more weapons but more vulnerable and spread your fire to cripple as many sails as possible before you're inevitable overwhelmed). (And for all that there's no evidence that any of the escort ships involved landed themselves on the List of Honor)

Hawkwing, for all the undoubted bravery of her officers and crew, didn't really have choices (well, except to order the armed civilian passenger liner to run rather that fight). She was ambushed from stealth, deep within the missile range of a far superior unit, and really could only keep up a running fight as long as possible to lure the BC slightly further away from the rest of the convoy. But she couldn't successfully run anyway, and I can't imagine taking that fire without shooting back. So what major moral choice did she make in that fight?


(Still, I'm not the arbiter of what ships belong on the RMN's List, and it's certainly possible I'm reading too much into the few examples we've got. OTOH something had to have kept the list from ballooning to a vast size over the centuries - so it's unlikely every ship that faced unequal odds, or fought a losing battle in defense of a convoy, made it onto the list; even in peacetime much less during declared wars)