HMS Boreas (1757) after periods at sea, averaging £1,573 in repairs for each year of service compared with £1,261 for comparable vessels built from oak. The frigate was named after Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind and bringer of winter. The naming followed a trend initiated in 1748 by John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, in his capacity as First Lord of the Admiralty, of using figures from classical antiquity as descriptors for naval vessels. A total of six "Coventry"-class vessels were named in this manner; a further ten were named after geographic features including regions, English or Irish rivers, or
Pygmy (Greek mythology) Monstrous Races of Men Are Derived From the Stock of Adam or Noah's Sons." Later Greek geographers and writers attempted to place the Pygmies in a geographical context. Sometimes they were located in far India, at other times near the Ethiopians of Africa. The Pygmy bush tribes of central Africa were so named after the Greek mythological creatures by European explorers in the 19th century. From Pliny's Natural History: From "The Life of Apollonius of Tyana" by Flavius Philostratus: From "The Travels of Sir John Mandeville": Pygmy (Greek mythology) The Pygmies ( "Pygmaioi", from the adjective πυγμαῖος from πυγμή "pygmē",