Talk:HMS Malabar (1804)

Latest comment: 7 years ago by Mitch Ames in topic Category:Convict ships ...

Category:Convict ships ...

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@Acad Ronin: Why did you remove the convict ship categories? The name may have changed, but presumably it was still the same ship when Coromandel took convicts to Tasmania and NSW. Mitch Ames (talk) 03:23, 25 February 2017 (UTC)Reply

@Mitch Ames: I wondered if that would draw a reaction. Reason was that if one is looking for convict ships to Tasmania, especially Coromandel, one would already have to know that Malabar became Coromandel. With the redirect, anyone looking for more info on an ancestor who came on HMS Coromandel (1815) would automatically go to HMS Malabar. The underlying idea is that it was Coromandel that went to Tassy, not Malabar, even though Coromandel used to be Malabar. Leaving the Tassy category at Malabar might also confuse someone who is skimming the category members who would then look in Bateson and others for any report of Malabar and not find it. Does all that make sense? I am completely open to a more creative solution as the problem is a common one. I just prepared an article on Sir Edward Hughes (1784 EIC ship), which went to Tassy as HMS Tortoise. Regards, Acad Ronin (talk) 03:49, 25 February 2017 (UTC)Reply
The underlying idea is that it was Coromandel that went to Tassy, not Malabar ...
If we asked the hypothetical question "Should there be separate articles for Malabar and Coromandel?" the answer would surely be "no", because the article is about a physical ship, not the name of a ship - and that physical ship took convicts to NSW and Tasmania, and thus belongs in the categories.
Leaving the Tassy category at Malabar might also confuse someone who is skimming the category members who would then look in Bateson and others for any report of Malabar and not find it.
I don't think this is likely to be a problem. Presumably someone skimming the category members and not finding Malabar in some other list would then check the Malabar article, and see that the ship was renamed. This is especially the case if we use bold formatting for the other names, per MOS:BOLDSYN. Mitch Ames (talk) 06:48, 25 February 2017 (UTC)Reply