Bill and G&S. Trivia Quiz.

[Bligh]

Just looking at this G&S advert Bill posted a while ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgeGFhmJjrA and it made me wonder how many of the G&S Operettas, other than the obvious Pirates and HMS Pinafore contained references to the sea or sailors etc. I did some research and decided to set a quiz for Bill and anyone out there who is a G&S aficionado.
How many of the 12 Operettas contain these references? As we have never had any Trivia quiz on the Anchorage excepting the one in May 2018, if you can also name the Operetta and show the place where the mentions occur I will award the Trivia Quiz medal to the first all correct answer posted here, or the closest one to the correct answer.
Rob.

[Wentworth]

Just looking at this G&S advert Bill posted a while ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgeGFhmJjrA and it made me wonder how many of the G&S Operettas, other than the obvious Pirates and HMS Pinafore contained references to the sea or sailors etc. I did some research and decided to set a quiz for Bill and anyone out there who is a G&S aficionado.
How many of the 12 Operettas contain these references? As we have never had any Trivia quiz on the Anchorage excepting the one in May 2018, if you can also name the Operetta and show the place where the mentions occur I will award the Trivia Quiz medal to the first all correct answer posted here, or the closest one to the correct answer.
Rob.

Off the top of my head, I make it out to be the following:
1) Pirates of Penzance
2) The Mikado ("And if you ask for a song of the sea we'll heave the capstan 'round")
3) HMS Pinafore
4) Ruddigore (set in fishing village in Cornwall)
5) The Gondoliers
6) Utopia, Limited (character of Captain Sir Edward Corcoran, KCB of the Royal Navy)
How'd I do?

[Bligh]

Not a bad start Bill.

Rob.

[Lieste]

I have a reference to a "Colonial Bishopric" in the Sorcerer - not a direct reference it is true, but one can hardly reach such a seat without sea travel.
Patience references "The Victory" and "the pluck of Lord Nelson".
Iolanthe "When tempests wreck thy bark (barque)" - Bathing machines... and "the ship is now a four wheeler" - technically this last is a reference to an infernal machine, but it *describes* it as a ship
Princess Ida (oblique reference to an extended sea voyage - make silk purses from Lady Circe's Piggy Wigs - being the crew of Odesseus's ship. (A stretch perhaps).
Mikado - lots of references - the 'hero' is after all a sailor. Specific references that spring to mind- heave the capstan round. The anchor is a'trip and her helm's a lee... etc
Ruddigore - unambiguous "she proved to be a frigate" etc.
The Gondoliers... by their very nature men of the lagoon.
HMS Pinafore & Pirates of Penzance are beyond obvious.

[Bligh]

Only one more day to go in this quiz for any of you shipmates to get your answers in.

Rob.

[Bligh]

With only the two entries I can now announce the winner as David.
The runner up was Bill.

There are actually no fewer than 11 out of the 12 OPERETTAS WITH MENTIONS OF THE SEA OR SAILORS.

As stated Pinafore and Pirates go without saying, so I did not count those in the tally.

Mikado as David says has the Nanki Poo song Wandering Minstrel with the verse beginning If you wish for a song of the sea.

The Gondoliers has the Duke of Plazatoro singing that if ever he gets back to Spain he will never cross the sea again.

Patience contains Colonel Caverley's Heavy Dragoon song with reference to Victory and the pluck of Lord Nelson devising a plan.

Princess Ida opens with the song " Search through Panorama for a sign of Royal Gama who today should cross the water with his fascinating daughter.

The Grand Duke. Has the Prince of Monte Carlo from "Mediterranean water."

Iolanthe, the Chancellor's nightmare song “and you dream you are crossing the Chanel and tossing about in a Steamer from Harwich”.

In the Yeomen of the Guard, Wilfred Shadbolt Jack Point sing of Colonel Fairfax escaping to the shipping.

In Ruddigore we have Dick Dauntless a Man’o Wars man sing his song "The revenue Sloop."

The Sorcerer, apart from Alexis mentioning that he is a member of the Army and Navy Stores, contains John Wellington Wells singing of his engagement to a maiden fair who waits for me by the sounding sea on a South Pacific isle.

Finally as David so rightly states in Utopia limited there is mention of Sir Edward Corcoran of the Royal Navy.

Well done chaps.

Rob.

[Wentworth]

Rob,
I thought of you last night as I watched a 1967 film of Tom Lehrer singing the chemical elements table to the Gilbert and Sullivan tune of "I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM

[Bligh]

Nice one Bill.
My Musket Lieutenant sings that as one of his party pieces when we are gathered around the old camp fire of an evening.

Rob.