Ship Names : HMS Edgar

[kc]

Edgar (UK)

Edgar surnamed the “Pacific,” born 943, reined 959-975. He succeeded his brother Eadwig as king of the Mercians, and was elected king of all the English. He reigned over the West Saxons, Mercians, and Northumbrians. His reign, except for a war with the Welsh and some campaigns in the north, was peaceful and very prosperous, and Archbishop Dunstan supported him in his government. To preserve the kingdom from the incursion of the Norsemen he kept up a large fleet and frequently went about with it himself. In 973 he was anointed king at Bath, and after his coronation sailed all round Wales to Chesire, where he received the homage of six of eight feudatory kings, who rowed him in his barge on the Dee, from his palace to the minster. The name was first given a ship by Charles II in express commemoration of the fact that King Edgar had established the naval power of the kingdom for the first time on a firm basis, and claimed the sovereignty of the sea.

[culverin]

Would someone please elaborate on this first phrase from #1 :-

Edgar surnamed the "Pacific".

He would scarcely have been able to navigate across to the Isle of Wight.

The Pacific was not known Internationally as such till many Centuries later.

[qprdave]

Pacific

a : tending to lessen conflict : conciliatory b : rejecting the use of force as an instrument of policy

a : having a soothing appearance or effect <mild pacific breezes> b : mild of temper : peaceable

[astraltrader]

Understand that Dave - but what has that to do with Edgar??

[qprdave]

Have you read post #01, Terry that kc posted? The ship was named after a King of the English. His name was Edgar the pacific similarly to Edward the Confessor and Ethelred the Unready.

Many of the Vikings and Saxons had similar titles added to their name. One Viking King had "No Legs" added after his name

Dave

[astraltrader]

I see what Kc meant now, Dave.

Like Culverin I thought that it was an unusual way of saying that Edgar was responsible for giving the Pacific Ocean its name!

[berry]

Good afternoon,
Re King Ethelred being 'unready'.According to one source the name 'unready' which was tagged on him was suggestive that he was a war-shy king,or not likely to make bold and king-like decisions.In fact his nick-name was originally 'unred',meaning ill-advised.This was an unkind pun on 'Ethelred' which means 'of noble counsel' or 'well advised' . Clearly those chroniclers of his time thought otherwise.
regards
Sid:)

[culverin]

Either that Terry, or maybe he was just very far sighted and laying claim to that vast expanse of nothingness for us future Brits.

And all it contains.

Well, he got it spot on.
Australia
New Zealand
Canada
USA
Malaya
Hundreds of titchy islands

So, we must all raise a toast to Edgar, the Pacific.

He deserves a carrier to be named in his honour.

[culverin]

And a carrier was what we got. Almost.

The Colossus class light fleet carrier Edgar was ordered from the 1942 programme, as were all 16 of this class, Edgar to be built by Vickers on the Tyne.
However, she was the 2nd of class and as y no 56 had her keel laid 1 Jun '42, same day as Colossus, same yard.
Launched 26 Mar '44, she completed a little too late for action, in Oct '45.

But not as planned.
On 2 counts.

Firstly, in Jun '44, once in the water, Edgar was no more, his Pacific head was decapitated and had morphed into Perseus.
And then Perseus himself would no longer be an aircraft carrier, but a new fangled maintenance carrier.
To maintain those aircraft from aircraft carriers.
Despite this new term, you still had to be an aircraft carrier to perform this role.

[kc]

Just spotted that this thread had some belated replies.

I think this is either a typographical error or just a difference in the way words are spoken over time. The book I quoted from was from c.1900 I believe, or perhaps a couple of decades earlier.

This king is (perhaps now) referred to as Edgar the Peaceful or Edgar the Peacable, so perhaps in the days the book was written, he was referred to as Edgar the Pacific.

And since Pacific itself means peaceful or peaceable, the name makes sense. The ocean is named after the word rather than the king named after the ocean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_the_Peaceful
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pacific

[culverin]

After the carrier named in his honour, although it wasn't, there was to have been a further Edgar to serve under the white ensign.

However, by 1942 the entire RN cruiser programme had turned into a total fiasco where changes of names from 1 ship in 1 class to a different ship in a different class can leave even the seasoned student of naval non events pretty bemused.

As a consequence, Edgar the pacific, together with a number of other names, apparently chopped and changed at a whim and designed to confuse even those who thought it all a good jape in the 1st place, leaving no one any the wiser.

At least by that stage of the war, the Germans could not have cared less, whether Edgar lived, or drowned.