Dirk Gently and INS Shardul (1975): Difference between pages

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'''Dirk Gently''' is a fictional character created by [[Douglas Adams]] and featured in the books ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'' and ''[[The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul]]''. Adams was working on a third Gently novel, ''[[The Salmon of Doubt]]'', at the time of his [[death]], although it may have turned out to be a ''Hitchhiker's'' novel instead if it had been finished.

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!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|Career

!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|[[Image:Naval Ensign of India.svg|60px|none|Indian Ensign]]

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|Ordered:

|[[2003]]

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|Launched:

|[[03 April]] [[2004]]

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|Commissioned:

|[[04 January]] [[2007]]

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|Decommissioned:

|

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|Fate:

|Active Service

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|Struck:

|

|-

!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|General Characteristics

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|Displacement:

|5600 tons - Standard

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|Length:

|124.8 metres

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|Beam:

|17.5 metres

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|Draught:

|

|-

|Propulsion:

| Kirloskar PA6 STC engines

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|Speed:

|15.8 knots

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|Range:

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|Complement:

|11 main battle tanks, 10 army vehicles and 500 troops excluding ship crew

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|Armament:

|WM-18 rocket launcher, SAM, Naval Medak gun, CRN 91 guns

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|Aircraft:

|[[HAL Dhruv]]/[[Westland Sea King|Sea King]]

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|Motto:

|''All for one, One for all''

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'''INS ''Shardul (L16)''''' is the lead ship of the [[Shardul class- Large Landing Ship Tank|Shardul class LST(L)]] of the [[Indian Navy]]. Its name means "Royal Bengal tiger".

Dirk bills himself as a "[[holism|holistic]] detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the ''whole'' crime, and find the ''whole'' person. In fact he is a [[confidence trick|con man]], and the "holistic detective" label is basically an excuse to run up large expense accounts and then claim that every item was, due to the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, actually a vital part of the investigation. (Challenged on this point in the first novel, he claims that he cannot in fairness be considered to have ripped anybody off, because none of his clients have paid him yet.)

==History==

Dirk's career as a confidence trickster has been dogged by persistent bad luck: whatever bizarrely improbable thing he claims in order to get money always turns out to be true (or at least appears, by some improbable coincidence, to have turned out to be true), invariably in a way that means that he does not get the money, and often in a way that means he gets arrested, loses his house, or is otherwise severely inconvenienced. Similarly, his various attempts to make money as a fake [[psychic]] have resulted in a perfect success rate that leads to awkward questions being asked.

*The first-of-the-class Landing ship tank (Large), Shardul (Royal Bengal tiger), was launched in 03 April 2004. The ship was handed over to the navy for trials on 3rd November 2006 and commissioned into the Indian Navy, on 4th January 2007 by the defence minister A.K Antony in Karwar at the [[INS Kadamba]] base. The ship was based under the Southern Naval Command in Kochi to train cadets before the commissioning of INS Kesari and INS Airavat.<ref>[http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/406200707172032.htm 'INS Shardul' engaged in training for naval cadets]</ref>

==References==

Dirk Gently is actually not this character's "real" name; it is presented early on in the first book that it is a pseudonym for the much less memorable "Svlad Cjelli." (This may not be his "real name" either; it is simply the name by which Richard MacDuff knew him at St. Cedd's College. Since "Svlad" took pains to cultivate a vaguely [[vampire|vampiric]] image, this may be simply an alias intended to evoke [[Vlad III Dracula|Vlad the Impaler]].)

#{{note|Best}}[http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/05/stories/2007010501452000.htm INS Shardul dedicated] Article in the [[Hindu]]

==External links==

A [[dirk]] is a type of knife, and the verb "to dirk" is an archaic synonym for "to stab"; therefore a literal translation of the name "Dirk Gently" would be the odd phrase "stab gently".

*[http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NAVY/Shardul.html Shardul class @ Bharat-rakshak.com]

*[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/l-shardul.htm LST(L) Shardul @ Global security.com]

[[Category:Indian Navy ships|Shardul]]

[[Category:Shardul class LST(L)| ]]

{{mil-ship-stub}}

Dirk was played by [[Michael Bywater]] in the 1992 TV documentary, ''Don't Panic''.

{{India-mil-stub}}

== See also ==

* ''[[I ♥ Huckabees]]'', a movie also about holistic detectives

[[Category:Fictional detectives|Gently, Dirk]]

[[Category:Science fiction series]]

[[it:Dirk Gently]]

[[he:דירק ג'נטלי]]