Nelson & His World

The Navy is apparently to revive the name of 'Nelsons favourite' - yesterday the MoD confirmed the building of another submarine of the 'Astute' class ... rumour has it that the name chosen for her is Agamemnon.

Many thanks for that update, PN.

I had a quick Google to read a little more about Nelson's 'Agamemnon' - here it is. She came to a sad end, it seems. The article also lists subsequent ships so named.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Agamemnon_(1781)

The wiki entry notes that the Admiralty seemed drawn to naming ships after classical heroes in Nelson's day. Again, I 'Googled' to remind myself about Agamemnon. It seems an odd name for a ship: Agamemnon led the Greeks in battle against Troy, but had a good deal of ill-luck at sea; and he was prepared to sacrifice his daughter and ended up getting murdered himself. No wonder the sailors changed the name to 'eggs and bacon.'!


http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/agamemnon.html