With the pandemic ongoing and overseas travel a distant dream, here's a picture quiz about the Seven Seas. In fact there are 30 of the world's seas listed here (and there are several more again beyond that). Can you navigate your way through the clues and guess the names of the seas?

 
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2 Bering
11 Sulu
25 Black
26 Aral

24 Tasman
16 Middle

15. Labrador

But should we not, rather than be racing to get there first, perhaps allow just a wee bit of time for others - who might come here later - to appreciate the conundrum?

George and Meles - yes to all.

No. 2 Ball bearings to give us Vitus Bering the 18th century Danish cartographer after whom the Bering Sea and Strait between Siberia and Alaska are named.

No. 11 George Takei as Lieutenant Sulu from Star Trek to give us the impossibly exotic-sounding Sulu Sea between the Philippines and Borneo.

No. 25 Singer Cilla Black to give us the Black Sea between Europe and Asia Minor. (Cilla could also have been a clue for No. 7 and No. 29).

No. 26 Ships high and dry in the desert which only 60 years ago was the Aral Sea and yet which barely exists at all today.

No. 24 A Tasmanian Devil to give us the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. The former name for Tasmania was Van Diemen's Land which the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman named in honour of his sponsor Anthony van Diemen the governor of the Dutch East Indies. The name was changed to Tasmania in the 1850s ostensibly because the name Van Diemen sounded too much like demon and was considered off-putting to settlers. Ironically this was around the same time as the name Diabolus ursinus (bear devil) was first used by zoologists to describe its famous marsupial. It seems that the island was destined to be associated with demons or devils either way.

No. 16 The musical note Middle C to give us the Middle Sea or Mediterranean. In the German language the sea is known as das Mittelmeer.

No.15 A chocolate, golden and black Labrador to give us the Labrador Sea between Canada and Greenland. (I like the card school for dogs!)

Solved so far - (see downthread).

Is the Volga car a clue to the Caspian? no 12
The painting at no 18 - the judgement of Solomon.

27 Isle of Man is in the Irish Sea. Its Manx name is Ellan Vannin, as on the petrol station.

21 Ford Capri suggests Tyrrhenian Sea, where the Isle of Capri resides.

1 Philip II of Spain, thus Phillipine Sea?

3 One of the 3 Arabian stallions which founded modern racing bloodstock. Now since I don't know of a Barb Sea it's not the Godolphin, and I'm not sure there's a Turkish Sea so I suspect not the Byerley Turk. That leaves the Darley Arabian. Could this be the Arabian Sea?

10 One story for the origin of mayonnaise is that it is derived from the aioli of Mahon, and thus perpetuates the name of Mago, Hannibal's brother. Mahon is in Menorca, in the Balearic Sea.

20 Moses parting the Red (or should that be Reed) Sea?

19 30 St Mary Axe aka The Gherkin - stands on the site of the former Baltic Exchange, badly damaged by an IRA bomb and demolished thereafter.

Correct with all of those GG except for one.

No. 2 The GAZ Volga (GAZ being Russia’s equivalent of BMW) named after the mighty river Volga which flows into the Caspian Sea.

No. 8 Peter Paul Rubens' The Judgement of Solomon giving us the Solomon Sea adjacent to the Solomon Islands. It’s not clear why the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana named the islands after Solomon. Across the Solomon Sea, however, lies Vanuatu (previously known as the New Hebrides) where the wisdom of Solomon was seemingly applied literally in the 20th century with 2 imperial powers, France and Britain, jointly administering the islands in condominium while the king of Spain acted as arbiter.
 
No. 27 A petrol station (with distinctive 3-legged logo) on the Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin) in the Irish Sea. (The original image was seemingly removed by the local oil-distribution company for dubious 'copyright' reasons. They obviously don't want the free publicity. So I've posted the image of a rival company's petrol station instead.)

No. 21 The Ford Capri an exquisite sports car designed in 1968 by American genius Philip T Clark who had also designed the Mustang. Unlike the muscly Mustang, however, the Capri had an elegant European look hence the choice of name after the stylish isle of Capri in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Unfortunately, however, many of the new owners of the cars did not have a similar sense of elegance or style, opting for vinyl fake-convertible roofs and other spoilers. Consequently the car later became associated with boy racers and bad taste. (The muscular bod in No. 5, who did have style and good taste, also lived on Capri.)   

No. 1 King Philip II of Spain after whom the Philippines are named. The adjacent Philippine Sea is a huge area of the Pacific Ocean located west of the Mariana Trench.

No. 3 The Darley Arabian, a bay stallion from Aleppo in Syria brought by Thomas Darley to Stamford Bridge in East Yorkshire in the 1700s as stud and is sire of many Thoroughbred racehorses in the British Isles, North America and beyond. Giving us the Arabian Sea.

No. 20 Charlton Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments.

No. 19 The Gherkin at 30 St Mary Axe, London, on the site of the former Baltic Exchange. The Exchange chose not to take up residency in the Gherkin when it opened in 2004, however, but instead moved down the road to number 38. Giving us the Baltic Sea.
 
Your answer for No. 10 regarding Mahon on Menorca, mayonnaise and the Balearic Sea would fit exactly if that had been the answer. But it isn’t. The answer is more cryptic. Although the word ‘mayo’ is short for mayonnaise, ‘Mayo’ is also the name of a place. Similarly, the word ‘real’ can mean genuine but sometimes it can mean royal. And whether the eggs are free range or not, any revolutionary will tell you that you cannot make mayonnaise or an omelette with cracking some. A euphemism for political violence or assassination.

Solved so far - (see downthread).

Well no. 5 isn't Our Gracie (I am reasonably sure of that), so could it be her husband, Monte Banks? Is there a Banks Sea? I know there's a Banks Strait.

I'm confused ... which ones are still to solve?

And please bear in mind that for some of us with less than ideal internet connections many of these image files are just so large that it takes ages - or at least many attempts after being repeatedly timed out - to see them. Can't they be resized a bit smaller, or at least so that they fit within a normal online page?

George - No. 5 isn't Monty Banks or even Sir Joseph. This chap lived many centuries ago and was renowned for preferring to live in his sumptuous seaside villas - particularly one at Capri - rather than in the big smoke. A cerebral man, he also professed to prefer diplomacy to warfare. One chap living at the same time as him was executed as a dissident but reportedly cheated death. By coincidence, the executed chap had spent some time earlier about 70 miles away from the place of execution, in a town which bore the name of the Capri villa dweller.      

Also - all of the answers are commonly known as seas. There are no straits, channels, bays, bights, gulfs or even oceans on the list.

Meles - the ones still to solve are the ones without maps beside them. I've kept the unsolved ones on the solved list so that people don't have to keep scrolling all the way up and down to check. I hope that makes sense. Let me know which pictures you're having difficulty with and I'll see If I can upload smaller versions. I'm mindful, however, that (for instance) the lettering on the ship in No. 6 is crucial to solving the clue so it needs to be reasonably large in order to be readable.

I've reduced the size of the picture in No. 4 of the pillar or rock which bears the same name as the body of water it overlooks. (Co-incidentally No. 4 and No. 5 are not very far away from each other geographically.)

Thanks for reducing the pic sizes a bit - they're much quicker to open now.

No. 5 depicts the Emperor Tiberius and Lake Tiberias is another name for the Sea of Galilee.

You mentioned above that 4 and 5 are geographically close, which suggests that No. 4 is the Dead Sea and I'm guessing that the rock pillar depicted is probably known as Lot's Wife who was of course turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at the destruction of Sodom.

No. 17 is the winged lion of Saint Mark which is the symbol of Venice "the Queen of the Adriatic" and so it must denote the Adriatic Sea.

No.22 (took me a while to remember his name) is Col. Oliver North from the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s, so it's the North Sea.

No 6 - Ship name transliterates as "Propontis" aka Sea of Marmora.

 13 Could the Coldplay reference be to one of the best known songs on that album - "Yellow"?

I'm glad that the pics are opening quicker for you now Meles. I'll try and reduce some of them further. And you're doing swimmingly. Yes!

No. 5 The Sea of Galilee – the only freshwater sea on the list. Also known as Lake Tiberias, Buḥayrat Ṭabariya in Arabic and Yam Kinneret in Hebrew. The town of Tiberias on its western shore was named after the Roman emperor Tiberius.

No. 4 Only 90 miles south of the Sea of Galilee is the rock pillar known as Lot’s Wife overlooking the Dead Sea. Known as Yam ha-Melah (Sea of Salt) in Hebrew and Buhayrat Lut (Lake Lot) in Arabic, it’s one of the world’s saltiest lakes. As with the Aral Sea, the Dead Sea may soon live up to its name and become an ex-sea having shrunk by an estimated 40% since 1970.

No. 17 The winged lion of St Mark the symbol of Venice. The Most Serene Republic’s trading empire dominated the Adriatic Sea and much beyond for over 700 years from the 11th century to the 18th century. 

No. 22 A relatively minor player in the Iran-Contra Affair, lieutenant colonel Oliver North of the United States Marine Corps working for America’s National Security Council was, nevertheless, made the face of the affair by the media during the hearings in 1987. Giving us the North Sea.


George - you're riding the crest of a wave.

No. 6 The Greek oil tanker bearing the name Προποντiς (Propontis) meaning ‘before the sea’ which is the Greek name for the Sea of Marmara located between the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus.
 
No. 13 Coldplay’s album Parachutes (2000) which featured the global hit Yellow. Giving us the Yellow Sea.

The popular music theme will also hold water with No. 9 - or is the red film poster a red herring? And talking about red herrings, is the man in No. 14 pointing at his red shirt or is he pointing at himself?

Solved so far - (see downthread).

23 This is a depiction of Artemis. One of her claimed birthplaces is Paximadia, in the Libyan Sea (Googled for birthplace, Artemis and her deer were obvious)

9 Alphaville and music. "Big in Japan" is the only link I can think of, in default of a "Forever Young" Sea. Sea of Japan.
7 (ping - sound of penny dropping) Priscilla White I could see, but it took ages to get beyond Rafael and the Annunciation to get Archangel / Arkhangelsk.

Query - isn't the Caspian classed as fresh water?

No.14 - I've never watched 'Friends', but didn't that actor, David Swim... something-or-other (it's Schwimmer, thanks wiki) play the character called Ross, something-or-other? And so, despite my almost complete ignorance, I'm guessing that the answer is the Ross Sea.

Well done George for getting Artemis and I am indeed looking for her birthplace. But the one I’m thinking of is not Paximadia. I’m going with the Cyrenaican narrative rather than the Cretan or Ephesian narratives. And ironically (considering the location of Cyrene) it’s not in the Libyan Sea but it’s a sacred island located in the middle of another sea where (according to Callimachus) she and twin brother Apollo were said to have been born.

No. 9 Alphaville the German synthesizer maestros from the 1980s who took their name from Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960s film hence my fiendishly red herring French film poster. The group was a one hit wonder in Britain and America with Big in Japan but were themselves never actually big in Japan even with that song. This gives us the Sea of Japan. (Considering the naming controversy of that body of water, the song’s lyrics refer to it as ‘the Eastern Sea so blue’ which is co-incidentally close to the Korean preference of ‘East Sea’.)

No. 7 The Annunciation by Raphael (1503). A depiction of the archangel Gabriel appearing to Mary. Michelangelo also did a drawing of the event. (It’s not recorded if Lucifer has ever made a stab at it.) This gives us Archangel (Arkangelsk) the Russian port on the White Sea. (Priscilla White / Cilla Black could also have been a clue for No. 29, which too follows the popular music theme, with her having recorded a cover version of the song in question.)  

The salinity of the Caspian Sea is a good question. My understanding is that it’s freshish at the northern/Russian end where the Volga and Ural rivers flow into it, is brackish in the middle parts and is saltish at the southern/Persian end.


Spot on Meles with No. 14. David Schwimmer as Ross from the 1990s television sitcom Friends. My next clue was going to be that he’s a friendly-looking fellow but you got there without it. This gives us the Ross Sea off Antarctica.

Solved so far - (see downthread).

So if Delos gets the nod on the twins' birthplace, that gives us the Aegean for 23

Henry Morgan the privateer & Governor of Jamaica might give the Caribbean for no. 8

Absolutely right with those GG.

No. 23 The Greek gods Artemis and Apollo said to have been born on the island of Delos in the Aegean Sea. (The study of Greek mythology and the Classics generally, is said to have inspired students and tutors at a university to see the participants of a skirmish in a couple of villages about 14 miles away from their college as being modern day Greek heroes. The names of both villages would become famous as being seminal locations in the history of that country and have warships named after them. One of the villages would also be commemorated in sculpture as in No. 28.)

No. 8 Sir Henry Morgan, the 17th century Welsh privateer who would become the inspiration for so many stories, novels and films about swashbuckling pirates of the Caribbean.

Solved so far - (see downthread).

No. 29, a bird's nest. Is this a reference to the edible bird's nests of cave-dwelling swiftlets which are collected to make bird's nest soup? These birds and their prized nests are found mostly on the walls of caves and crags in the coastal districts of Northern Borneo, the Indonesian peninsular, Vietnam, Taiwan and Southern China, ie the coasts bounding the South China Sea. Is that it?

A very good guess MM but it's not the South China Sea. The nest is empty so one could say that This Bird Has Flown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_V6y1ZCg_8

Thus  Norwegian Sea

I get the Minuteman but can't see the connection to a sea

Oh yes! USS Lexington sunk in the battle of the Coral Sea!

That's them George.

No. 29 (This Bird Has Flown) being the parenthetical title of the Beatles' 1965 song Norwegian Wood giving us the Norwegian Sea.

No. 28 The Minuteman insignia of the American aircraft carrier USS Lexington which was sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942.

Solved so far - (see downthread).

Mayo - Lord Mayo, vicroy (title means "in place of the king" thus your regal clue) was assassinated at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, so we have alternative names. Sometines known as the Burma Sea, sometimes as the Andaman Sea.

Uluru has me foxed totally, though.

You've cracked that one GG.

No. 10 Richard Bourke, Earl of Mayo, Viceroy of India who was assassinated in 1872 while inspecting a penal colony at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. Giving us the Andaman Sea.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is one of the largest isolated monoliths and one of the oldest rocks to be found on the surface of the planet. It consists of red sandstone which suggests that it wasn't always on the surface but was maybe underwater. As with No. 23 Greek mythological twins might help here.

Solved so far - (solved clues have maps adjacent):

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4. Dead Sea

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26. Aral Sea

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