ORIGINAL: rtrapasso
You might be able to pull up some interesting stuff on the guy if you search long and hard enough. Mogami came away with a brief bio, but it was bullshit. There's more to this guy than readily meets the eye.
Anyway, pretty good job on this quiz. I don't know if it was hard, but it wasn't easy, either.
Yeah - see my posts above. The references called him Geoffrey Nathaniel Pyke, and he sounds like quite a character. I'll have to see if i can find out more on him...
I wondered about the correct spelling of Pyke's name when Mogami brought up that little piece on him. My first search found the same site Mogami had hit. At that time I was convinved I'd simply forgotten over the years and had his name spelled incorrectly in my mind as Pyke, but as it turns out I was correct after all.
Yes, Pyke is one of those very remarkable and special people that each century seems to endow. One of his ideas regarding pykrete was to use these large vessels as supply transports to Africa and the Near and Middle East, where they then could be allowed to melt down and provide fresh water for that region. A case of killing more than one bird with a single stone.
He was a genius, and so of course he was misunderstood, misappreciated and pretty much ignored by the powers that then held sway. Churchill had a nonconformist bent, and Lord Louis Mountbatten the same, plus both were always eager for effective ideas as to how best progate the war, and never mind their egos. Mountbatten, though born to position, was an extremely smart man in his own right, and we lost something when he was killed by the IRA. Another sad story.
Good job on this! I'd guess you've learned a few things in the process. (Which is, by the way, why I go to the trouble. Plus, I like to have some fun once in awhile. [:)])
