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 (R22) HMS Ursa (R22) HMS "Ursa" was a U-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during the Second World War. She was later converted into a Type 15 fast anti-submarine frigate, with the new pennant number F200. "Ursa" was first allocated to the 25th Destroyer Flotilla. She served with the Home Fleet and took part in support of the Operations to invade Normandy in June 1944 and also operations along the French Atlantic coast which culminated in the final destruction of the German navy there during the Battle of Audierne Bay. In October of that year she was