What does this rebus mean?

J, ____ & Titanic

Each of the following sentences contains clues to a set of three words that are spelled the same, except for one letter (each sentence describes a different set). Example: malt, melt, molt.

1) To reduce the strength of the enemy, the general ordered a siege of the citadel.

2) The winner of the contest won a vessel and the loser received a kick in the pants.

3) Bill tried to remove a piece of wood from the pile, but it was jammed between two...

Six words have had their fish removed. The fish have been placed into Group A. The remaining letters of each word have been placed into Group B. Your task is to reconstitute the words by merging each fish with the proper set of letters. Other than merging the two groups together, there is no rearranging of the letters. Example: sand + pne= spanned (SpANneD).

Group A: bass, carp, gar, shark, trout, tuna
Group B: acue, hugho, moc, rnula, ...

The American Civil War has ended. Can you repatriate the Confederacy (gray) into the Union (blue) by changing one letter at a time? Each step must create a valid word in the English language. President Abraham Lincoln made the change in 6 steps (for the history buffs out there, Abe planned these changes before he was assassinated). Can you do as well ... or better?

GRAY ---- BLUE

The countries of Russia and Egypt share a characteristic that only one of the countries in the following list also shares. Which country and for what reason? It has nothing to do with spelling or pronunciation.

Austria
France
Iran
Japan
Mexico
Nigeria
Pakistan
Spain
Turkey
Venezuela

(Hint: The answer covers a lot of ground ...)

Harry took a hike away from home. Unfortunately, birds ate his trail of bread crumbs. Can you help Harry return home by changing one letter at a time? Each step must create a valid word in the English language. Harry made the change in 8 steps. Can you do as well ... or better?

AWAY ---- HOME