Ursa Minor The tradition of naming the northern constellations "bears" appears to be genuinely Greek, although Homer refers to just a single "bear". The original "bear" is thus Ursa Major, and Ursa Minor was admitted as second, or "Phoenician Bear" (Ursa Phoenicia, hence Φοινίκη, Phoenice) only later, according to Strabo (I.1.6, C3) due to a suggestion by Thales, who suggested it as a navigation aid to the Greeks, who had been navigating by Ursa Major. In classical antiquity, the celestial pole was somewhat closer to Beta Ursae Minoris than to Alpha Ursae Minoris, and the entire constellation was taken to indicate the
HMS Ursa (1917) 13 July 1928 and broken up. HMS Ursa (1917) HMS "Ursa" was a modified Admiralty destroyer which served with the Royal Navy. The vessel served with the Grand Fleet during World War I. The destroyer took part in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight while being commanded by Commander John Tovey, who later became Admiral of the Fleet and led the successful action against the battleship "Bismark". "Ursa" was long overall, with a beam of and a draught of . Displacement was . Power was provided by three Yarrow boilers feeding two Parsons geared steam turbines rated at and driving