After the AI-created question of the day, I'll try to answer Pat's question.

Since I don't live there, and I don't read the local newspapers, I had to do some research on the web.
I didn't find a specific answer.
I searched for specific news on "breakwater function" and I didn't find any about the HMS Bristol.
There is no news about the "homeless shelter" function for this ship either.
At this point, reasoning logically, since off Whale Island it was used as a harbor training ship, I can assume that it hosted dignitaries for various events.
So I would opt for answer 1 to Pat's question.

I really like these "human" questions.
However, I'd like to make a suggestion Pat, which is definitely not a criticism:
The questions should have a more global nature (even if rightly restricted to the naval and modeling field) because otherwise only those from that area can answer.

Alessandro... I tend to remember the stuff that interested me, and not so with stuff that didn't. Metalwork and woodwork, I never stopped, Geography and History still hold interest for me. High mathematics made me switch off but I can still solve triangles and all things pi. Chemistry taught me rules regarding acids and bases, and the safe way to mix them with water ( pickle for silver soldering) and the practice of making distilled water for my boilers.. Physics was also a handy subject, we all need Ohms Law to calculate fuse ratings and battery work, Boyle's law, Gay Lussac's law and Charle's law ( combined gas laws) are essential in model boiler making. And so it continues. 15 years ago I did an Open University science foundation course, purely out of interest whilst I was recovering from major surgery which allowed me to Polish up my maths and taught me that observation was of paramount importance. We continue to learn throughout our lives, In our hobby, we have ample opportunity to apply scientific and mathematic principles, most of the time without realising. I first learned to use a lathe in school and have had one ever since, same applies to using saws and planes to work wood. All in all, stuff learned in school will stand you in good stead for a productive life...

Regarding today's question about the capstan, some time ago I had to do some thorough research on this very object.
Since I started from scratch in the gunboat project (schooner-armed), I didn't know how to make the capstan, whether to put it, how many to put and, if necessary, where to put them.
After much research on similar and contemporary ships, I found the correct point to position it.
In the meantime, I have acquired a lot of technical and historical information on this object.
In 1/60 scale, I made the quickest choice (which I'm certainly not proud of): I bought a ready-made one in a model shop.
I prefer to make some pieces myself, but sometimes I use the ready-made ones.
If they are badly made, I am forced to make them from scratch.
For example, I liked the anchors and I bought them already made in perfect scale (there were various sizes).
The cannons of that period simply do not exist (not even Amati of Turin makes them, nor Mantua of Mantua) and so I had to make them from scratch, including the initial design (based on photos of the time).
In general, I now try to optimize time, if I can.
For the lifeboats it's a different story, I made them myself (including the initial design) because I like making hulls. I wouldn't have deprived myself of this pleasure even if I spent a lot of time.
Unfortunately, I already know that I will have to make the compass myself, the ones on the market are too rough or out of scale.
The same goes for the lateral cranes.

Nick you wrote:
"""""""""Alessandro, Paying attention in Geography has finally paid off after 55 years since leaving school! """""""""

Well! The result seems to be excellent.
When we leave school a process of "descolarization" begins.
It is inevitable that mathematical, physical, chemical, geographical, historical and all the other notions are gradually lost over time if they are not revived in some way.
I try to counteract this tendency with a process that I call "antidescolarizzione".
It consists of this: every occasion is good to revive the notions and quizzes are part of the process.
Those who read up on books, TV documents or the internet to answer questions revive the notions and perhaps learn others.
Even written or oral discussions on technical or scientific topics (we tend to talk more often about sports, especially football and politics, gossip or trivial topics) are very important.
A small part of the day is enough to activate the virtuous process.

Lucky guess on this one today.
I very nearly went for A but then thought better of it and plumbed for B instead.
Don’t know why but just as well I did.

Well following on from my disaster of a question yesterday I thought I would ask a more topical question today :-

HMS Bristol is currently on her way to Turkey to be scrapped - who can tell me what was her secondary role when she wase moored off Whale Island as a Harbour Training ship ?

1. Provide a venue for Civic Dignitaries for a DTS

2. Act as a breakwater to protect the shore of Whales Island from erosion caused by passing ships in Portsmouth harbour

3. Act as accommodation for homeless people

Well another one right but a move down the board again 😭😭😭😭

The sea ditties they sang kept them in time with each other.
Roy

Alessandro, Paying attention in Geography has finally paid off after 55 years since leaving school!

Great Nick!
A thousand points deserved.

It is important to know the difference between a great circle (ortodromica) and a rhumb line (lossodromica).

To simplify as much as possible.
The great circle is the shortest route, but it does not maintain a constant angle with the meridians. 
The rhumb line maintains a constant angle with the meridians, making it easier to follow with a compass, but it is not the shortest route. 
Mercator, in his projection, made the meridians parallel to each other (but in reality they are not because they converge at the poles).
A straight line on a Mercator projection is equivalent to a curved line in reality.

Shortest distance across the surface of a sphere, ie "the great circle". When projected on to a flat surface the lines look "bent"...

Maybe I asked the question badly in English, because surely someone knows it even without using Google.
But you can certainly use Google.
A gift of 1000 points to whoever guesses it ahahahahah.

Let me try to rephrase better:
Why on a large scale map, which uses the Mercator projection, (for example the Atlantic Ocean) are the routes drawn longer than the path that would be taken simply by joining two points (for example one in Europe and one in America)?

May I suggest that asking associated questions to those already posed may well impact on future questions.

The A.I. is not aware of the content of this thread and so will not know that a question posed has already been talked through.

Remember all the daft questios around soap stone or what ever it was called?

However, not wishing to appear as a wet blanket there is some fun to explore around our A.I. Inquisitor.

I used to set a live quiz for our own club many years ago and one member was always ready to throw in extra information and on one occasion it was the answer to the following question. I gave up after that!

Roy

This time you are forgiven Pat but the question was initially wrong, next time don't do it again, ahahahahah.
I'm joking of course.

I propose a very simple question.
It is simple because it concerns the rudiments of nautical cartography (within everyone's reach without needing to be an admiral).
We have often asked ourselves this even as children.
The question is this:

Why will the route of a plane crossing the Atlantic, if seen on a map that uses the Mercator projection, appear longer than a straight line that joins the two points on the same map?

I hope the question is understandable in English.
If not, tell me and I will rephrase it.

I like the part of the discussion devoted to the female side as being unacknowledged.

Einstien married a lady in his course who was ahead of him among the students.

Dick Francis hardly attended school after 15 and his wife had a degree in English. The books read so well and flow along gracefully.

Things start to become fairer with Marie Curie. A recent film called "The Wife" shows it all off perfectly. If you have not seen it, it is worth seeking out.

Roy

Well done to Nick and Alessandro - it was of course John Harrision that chased the Longitude prize for many years - his first clock (made of wood) and the rest of his clocks are still going and can be seen in the maritime museum at Greenwich

The clock guy, forgotten his name now, Harris was it?

Attribution to John Harrison (1693-1776).

Hi SimpleSailor, if you admit the paternity of the planisphere astrolabe (one of the two types you mentioned) to Hipparchus, you have to admit that it predates the Roman Empire.

For a laugh: let's hope the discussion doesn't get to the fateful and infamous "sunstone", ahahahahah.
Do you remember it?
Two hundred thousand questions proposed by the AI ​​on this "sunstone" of the Norse (to the just despair of CommodoreH who couldn't stand it anymore).
By now I had thought of ordering a couple on Amazon, you never know.

It's all a bit of fun if you like that kind of thing, I did kick myself in one quiz though I could not remember who Freddie Mercury's girlfriend was and it cost me £100 cause I dipped out by 1 point - so so such is life - we cant all be perfect all the time - go on SimpleSailor have a stab at the name I am looking for :-)

Well Pat, I suppose we will have to give you some latitude if the change to longitude 😉. I might not answer because I think I have made a big enough hole to fall in already 😂. I do like questions that make you think and I love researching topics.

OK being an Officer and a Gentleman I will admit I made a cock up in my question - of course I meant Longitude and not Latitude.

Who wishes to modify their answer now ?

Sorry my fault

It will indeed be a good discussion 😁. Because the person "who made the determination of Latitude possible" was Eratosthenes. No one really knows for sure who invented the Astrolabe. The concept goes right back to the Roman Empire, and it has been claimed that it was invented by Hypatia of Alexandria, a female mathematician and philosopher who lived in Egypt in the 4th century AD. Sometimes it is attributed to her father, because women should not have been meddling in such things. As always it depends on which version of history you come across. It should also be noted that there at least two Astrolabe, a planispheric astrolabe mainly used by Hipparchus, who's prime interest was where the celestial bodies were in the sky at any given time. The Marine Astrolabe was a development of the original planispheric astrolabe.

Hi Pat now I'll try to guess your answer.

That is, I'll try to imagine what the correct answer is according to you.
Then I'll tell you what I think is correct.

I imagine that for you the correct answer is the Englishman John Hadley (1682-1744) because he invented the sextant.
The paternity of the sextant is also attributed to the American Thomas Godfrey (1704-1749).

In my opinion, however, the correct answer is Hipparchus of Rhodes who is considered the inventor of the astrolabe. And the astrolabe was useful for calculating latitude even before the sextant.

Now I think a nice discussion will open, well done Pat.

Well one of you is on the right track 😁😁😁

OK - I concede that Eratosthenes was the person that "devised" the system of Latitude and Longitude - but not how to calculate where you are in regards to that.

I will post the answer I was looking for later/expecting in the day - give some more people chance to have a go

Hipporauchamus? (Hope that is spelled correctly) Some Greek chap I believe, it was the clock chap that finally sorted longitude.

Hi Pat. I suppose it depends on where you get the information from 😉.

https://etc.usf.edu/maps/pages/10400/10489/10489.htm

Not the person I was thinking of I believe Eratosthenes was the first person to calulate the circumference of the earth - good try though 😀

Eratosthenes

Here's a question for all you nautical people from a simple sailor - who made the determination of Longitude possible thereby making it safer for the navigation at sea

Thanks for that explanation Roy

Good question I have had my laptop on at 0200 GMT and the new day's question has not yet appeared.
Roy

What time zone does the start of the 24 hours relate to?

OK lets go through it. There are 30 dashes under your avatar. Blue is right answer, red is wrong answer and the light grey is failure to answer.

Each day one drops off on the right and another unanswered one comes on to the left in light grey. Your score then drops by 3% and the unanswered heading goes up by one.

You answer correctly and the left dash goes blue and your score goes up 3 %. If wrong it goes red and your score stays as it was.
You have 24 hours to answer the question before the next day, then the dash stays grey.

You can monitor your own score by looking at the dashes blue is one, red and grey are zero, with 30 dashes, i.e. the last 30 answers work their way along. The two columns at the end are headed unanswered and wrong to separate the red and grey.

I think that covers it, so no mysterious algorythms just a bit of arithmetic.
Roy

Well I got my question right but still moved down one place on the ladder - would be interesting to know how the algorithm works

There several graving docks in the Wallasey/Birkenhead dock system, most now filled in but Cammel Lairds maintain one in the West Float. Lairds also have one or two in the yard proper...

Just a good guess today. I have never heard of a dry dock being called a graving dock, but to me it was the only shore based option based on the last part of the question "characterised by permanent shore-based construction rather than being a floating or mobile structure" 😁

The majority of questions can be answered by careful reading of the question, there are usually clues to the answer within. For example, re the question about working condition regs., the answer was obviously (to me at least) the Labour regulations as opposed to SOLAS regs. This last question, regarding dry docks, the fact that the question mentioned attached to the land could only mean the answer was graving dock, as a floating dry dock isn't constrained by land. Careful reading of the question, followed by a process of elimination, starting with the eliminating choices that it could not be before referencing possible answers with the text of the question. As for leader board positions, I never seem to get past third, even after a long run of correct answers. All part of the fun.
I will leave you with this question. If it takes a week to walk a fortnight, how many apples in a barrel of grapes?

Got today’s wrong.
Oh well that’s that, I drop down again. 👎

Thanks - I do enjoy the questions and I never ask Mr Google until I have answered - and then only if I get it wrong

I do find some of the question very obscure - personally - I would like to see more questions about the Royal Navy 😉

I don’t mind the piss taking as long as it stays light hearted

Hi Southport, no offence of course, and you are right about getting the answers right in public as well! So a bit of joshing keeps the banter going.

By the way Fireboat I have missed seeing Titanic as an option lately!

The QoD is a piece of amusement and no one takes it seriously. Many of those at the rear end of the scores have not answered many questions anyway.

I looked at your harbour and the models look great, and so many!
regards
Roy

Yeah,
How about, Where did Nah get the Gopher wood and how long did it take to build the ArK?

Wooah another one right

Roy..

Quote... "I view it as we have to have competitors like you, so that we can feel good about ourselves by beating you.😎"

I love it when comments are put so 'succinctly' 👍👍

I know what your saying but I like my quizzes and aim to win them all but seldom do lol

I would much rather see someone giving proper nautical or modelling question than some of the crap AI is coming up with though

Remember Southport it is the 'taking part' that matters not the winning.😀😀

I view it as we have to have competitors like you, so that we can feel good about ourselves by beating you.😎

Roy

All the crew on my boats keep Schtum, receive no pay and are largely ignored, any talk of them joining a union and it is back in the garage and made ready for the next clearout.
Otherwise I have always thought of myself as a touchy/feely and concerned sort of person.
Roy

Don't know about the Bible - perhaps Nostodamous would be more useful these days !!!

We need some questions from the Bible
How many cubits was Noah’s ark ?
What kinda fish ate up Jonah?😀