The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-15
QUEER NANTES FOR SHIPS.
Ta~wbreakers, Sweethearts' Names, Every
Port, and Lords, Ladies and Saints.

Port, and Lords, Ladies and Saints.
New York Sun.
There are some queer notions expressed IN
ships names" a young insurance clerk salu,
while standing on a South street pier the other
day, looking up at the fierce countenance OF the
fgure-head of the Eastern Monarch, loading for
Melbourne. MY business has, in one way and
another, brought a good many of them to my
notice. Men who own ships have the same
characteristics as others, probably, but they
have a better opportunity to exhibit them 70
the world. For instance, there is the oark
Ascensione, formerly the Resurrezlone. one
was built in Proseda. and is owned by sig. Gala-
tola of Naples. The Immaculate Concezione is
owned by Sig. de Maunza, of Sestrl Ii you
could see a parade of ships which bear such
names of Queen of Scots, Centurion, Crusader,
Mt. Carmel, Palestine and the saints OF every
name and degree of holiness, you would find the
Italian red, white and green flag, with a white
cross in the center, would lead all the rest, and
the Spanish yellow and the French tricolor
would follow.
The ships Of the more vigorous s~eafaring
nations show much less piety across their sterns'
In New England, and in old England, for the
matter of that, the young men VINO were IN Ola
times born with weakly constitutions were edu-
Gated for the ministry, and the young toughs
were sent to sea. This seemed to have worked
well for In America there grew up,
one may say, a class of ships which bore
the names of the Conqueror, the Challenge,
the Sovereign of the Seas, the Persever-
ance, and the old favorite, Dreadpaught.
There are ships afoat now of similar
names, but they are In
memory of the merchant marine we once had.
The pride and enterprise that once dictated the
names of American ships seem to have departed
forever.
zone of the feelings which govern the naming
of ships nowadays is the hope of gain by fiat
cry. Without mentioning the fleets that have
been named for men who were supposed to be
more or less able to put cargoes into the new
hulls, you would be astonlshed, [ think, to
see the number of foreign Americas that haunt
our ports. There are four foreign steamships.
one foreign schooner, two foreign briggs, SIX
foreign banks, and three foreign fullrigged
ships with that name across their sterns. This
does not include the Americans, the North Amer
icas, and other variations of the same name.
No other country can boast of as many foreign
namesakes. India probably comes next in the
list. Where patriotic feelings control the Brit
ish, their British Empires, British Queens, Great
Britains, and so on, take the lead. Hope of gain
and love of home place the names OF unnum-
bered towns and cities on vessels OF every rig
There is not a settled port in the world that has
not at least one vessel named for it, and many,
like New York, have several.
Merchants of literary accomplishments or
tastes name their ships Charles Dickens, Guilty
Sark, Lord Macaulay, Don Quixote, Falstaff,
Ivanhoe, and Don Juan. If their taste has a
special bent to ancient history, they entwine a
serpent among the golden letters of Cleopatra,
or they call their ships Hannibal, or Leonidas,
or Patrician. Others take to drama. The old
Collins line of steamships grew out of what was
known as the Dramatic line of Liverpool packets,
but now the Fanny Davenport. the Prima
Donna, the Rhea, and the Ratio are either
blowing through the sea or are tied up along
side of some dirty pier while sweaty 1ongshore-
men are histin the cargo into EN-.
Ship captains are. astronomers through neces-
sity, and, consequently, under the taffrails OF
no end of ships are Sunbeams, and Moonbeams,
and Stars, and Comets, and the Pleiades. but
no Nebula. There is a ship Borealis. however.
Hero worship produced the Ericssons. the
Farraguts, the Garibaldis, the Andrew Jack
sons, but what produced the Rutherford B.
Hayes is past finding out. The Garfield is a
Liverpool ship launched in 1882, but probably
named when her keel was laid the year before,
when President Garfield mad just died. This
brings into consideration contemporaneous
history. The Volunteers were launched fire.
quently during the recent war of the rebellion,
and the Loyal was another popular name. This
cause named the Balaklava and the Getty sburg,
but it was no doubt an unprecedented love of
pluck that named the Thernopyle. A Quaker
probably owned thr Peacemaker.
IF there was not a genuine love of the sea
in the breasts of many men the American
foreign marine would have long since wholly
disappeared. Lindsay in his history speaks of
the pride which shipowners take in their ships
and their business. Some own the Flying
Cloud, the Spray, the Wave, the Cutwater, the
Revolving Light, the Foam, the Mermaid and
the Sea Serpent. Some men who are of a ro-
mantle turn have named their ships Cleaning
and Charmer. Akin to these are the names
Minnehaha, Hiawatha, Border Chief, Iroquois,
Mohawk and Red Jacket. The geographical
names are plenty. and usually appropriate. The
oceans, CULTS, bays, capes, rivers. lakes, etc, are
all represented. The lords, ladies, marquises,
and clans of Great Britain, and the counts,
princes and princesses, are freely remembered.
The one feature of American ships is influence
Of home on the names. The mothers. wives and
and sweethearts of New England have
Travelled in name from the ice of
the North to the ice of the South, and
have crossed every sea and entered every inlet
and anchored in every harbor of the world.
Nearly one-half of the American sailing vessels
bear the name of women. There is no name in
the female catalogue that has not graced a ship.
1t was Senator Frye, / think, when speaking on
that section of the DinSley bill which permits
owners to enroll OF register vessels as hailing
from the port where owned, who said that his
constituents, from the love they had for
their ships, cared more for that section of
the bill than all the rest put together.
When the young captain conducts his new ship,
bearing the name of mis- sweetheart, out of port,
be is prouder than the Gar of Russia, and he
has a right to be.
why any one should name his ship after that
miserable little beast the cheetah is past finding
out, unless he was a naturalist. That hope
springs eternal in the human breast is shown by
the mum Der of Bonanzas atioat. In marked con-
trast is the ship Reporter. The af-Trygvason
is a cheerful name, but what may be said of the
Clackmacuddin, the Erling Skjalgsen, and the
Khimiee OodoWiee is more than | can tell