A friend of mine and I were discussing this movie recently when I asked where the title The Sand Pebbles came from. A corruption of the ship's name, he said. I either forgot or missed it, even though I've seen this movie a number of times.
But who corrupted the ship's name, the Chinese or the American sailors joking around?
"Ready when you are, Mister DeMille."
It was probably an American nickname. In the book, Limeys from the HMS Woodcock were jokingly called "Limber Dicks" by the American sailors.
"I told you it was off." The Jackal
It came from the book. The book details more of the mannerisms. It was, is and always has been a tradition for sailors to nickname their vessels in some way. A ship I used to be on long ago, the San Jose, was nicknamed the Magnificent Seven. This was not a take on the name, rather it was a take on the hull number. Some ships do takes on the ships namesake, some are really simple, like the Enterprise, which is simple the Big E. Teddy Roosevelt for example goes by several, the TR and the Big Stick. Some are derrogatory, like the Mount Whitney, which I was on a Staff, was popularly called Buiding 20 after the hull number and the fact that it almost never got underway. Missouri, Big Mo, Mighty Mo or simply Mo. My first ship was the America during Vietnam, affectionately it was the Big A but, derrogatorily to some it was the Big *beep* Though I was never on her, the Kittyhawk probably had the worst nick ever, the Sh)(*y Kitty. Sand Pebble was for the ship and Sand Pebbles were the crew, its a simple take on the name.
sharein the late '60s, rifle company in VN, plus five months in a Viet ville with a Combined Action Platoon. In the CAP unit, slang for us and them was rife. We also called the corps "the suck," but only Marines could say that.
"Ready when you are, Mister DeMille."
'Building 20'! Lol!
Unbeknownst to most, vehicles of these type, being water, air or land based, are not by happenstance. They are by and large, conceived after a much under-utilized discipline that includes but is not limited to; cost versus return, contractual obligation, senatorial-seat retention, constituent interest, numerical force inflation, media exploit-ability and other factors that are to numerous to mention here.
These are known simply as Strategic Stationary Vehicles, or by their acronym, StaSis.
Studios do not care if the population likes it, as long as they are paying to see it. blackmamba
If you've seen the movie several times, then you know that Frenchy says that to Holman when the latter comes aboard for the first time. Frenchy says, "Welcome to the San Pablo. We're [meaning the sailors] the Sand Pebbles."
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I've seen this movie a dozen times but that line never sunk in on me as to the moniker of the rank and file aboard the ship.
"Ready when you are, Mister DeMille."
According to the book, San Pueblo was originally a Spanish Navy ship built for service in the Philippines. It was taken over by the U.S. Navy as war booty in 1898.
Side note: Before the Great War Winston Churchill was Lord of the Admiralty. He had the job of suggesting names of new battleships to the King, who could approve or decline. Two names from British history that earned the royal veto were "Oliver Cromwell" and "Pitt." "Cromwell," because the King did not want to name a ship after someone who had decapitated one of his ancestors; and "Pitt" because the king knew, from his own Royal Navy days, the nickname it would immediately be given!
More specifically, Frenchy identifies the ship to Holman as "the Sand Pebble" (he already knows its real name), then says that, therefore, "We're Sand Pebbles". Just terms of endearment made up by its crew.
shareAs Frenchy explains early in the film, 'they' call them 'The Sand Pebbles'. US gunboats in Chinese waters were a painful local joke, as they were mostly over-the-hill or hopelessly obsolete harbour or river patrol boats, some, in the words of another character from the film, 'left over after the Spanish-American War'. The moniker is corrupted from 'San Pablo', but the crew have taken the name to themselves, and regard both it, as well as the thankless task to which they have been put, as a badge of honor.
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