The Portland daily press., 1884-11-13
Queer Names for Ships.


JawbTealers, Sweethearts, Names, Every
Port, and Lords, Ladies'. aud Saints.
N. Y Sum-
There are some queer notions expressed
in ships names," young insurance clerk
said, while standing on South street pier
the other day, looking up at the fierce coun-
tenance of the fgurehead Of the Eastern
Monarch, loading for Melbourne .sMy
business has in one way aud another brought
good many of them to my notice. Men
who own ships have the same characters
tics as Others, PROBABLY, but they have a bet
ter oppos unity to exhibit them to the world
For instance, there is the bark Ascensione,
formerly the Resurrezlone. She was built
at Proseda, and is owned by Signor Galatoa
of Naples. The Immaculate Concezione is
owned by Signor de Maunza of Sestri. If
you could see parade of ships which bear
such names as 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 white cross in the centre,
would lead all the rest, and the Spanish yell
low and French tricolor would follow.
The ships of the more vigorous seafaring
nations show much less piety across their
sterns, In New England, and in old Eng
land, for the matter of that, the young men
who were in old times born with weakly
constitutions were educated for the minis.
try, aud the young toughs were sent to sea.
This seemed to have worked well for COM
merce. In America there grew up, one NAV
say, class OF ships which bore the names
of the Conqueror, the Challenge, the Soyer-
eign of the Seas, the Perseverance, and the
cid faVorite, the Dreadnaught. There are
ships af1oat now of similar names, but they
are reminscences--named in memory of the
merchant marine we once had. The pride
and enterprise that once dictated the names
OF American ships seems to have departed
forever.
One of the feelings which govern the nam
ing of ships nowadays is the hope of gain by
hattery. Without mentioning the fleets that
have been named for men who were sup
posed to be more or less able to put cargoes
into the new hulls, you would be astonished.
think, to see the number of foreign Ameri
cas- that haunt our ports. There are four
foreign steamships, Que foreign schooner,
two foreign brigs, six foreign barques and
three foreign fnll-rigged ships with that
name across their sterns. This does not in
cude the Americans, the North Americans,
and other variations Of the same name. No
other country can beast as many foreign
namesakes. India probably comes next on
the list. Where patriotic feelings control
the British their British Empires, British
Queens, Great Britain, and so on, take the
lead. Hope of gain, and love of home place
the names of unnumbered towns and cities
on vessels of every rig. There is not set
tied 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 Quixoie.
Faistaff, Ivahoe, and Don Juan. If their
taste has a special bent to ancient history,
they eDtwine serpent among the golden
letters OF Cleopatra, or they call their ships
Hannibal or Leonidas or Patrician. Others
take 10 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 DON
ma, the Rhea and the Ralto are either
plonghing through the sea or are tied up
alongside of some dirty pier, while sweaty
longshoremen are "h'istin' !" the cargo into
EN-.
necessity, and consequently under the taft
rails of no end of ships are Sunbeams, and
Moonbeams, and Stars, and Comets, and the
Pleiades, but no Nebula. There is ship
Borealis, however. Hero worship produced
the Ericssons, the Farraguts, the Andrew
Jacksons. The Garfield is a Liverpool ship
launched in 1882, but probably named when
Der keel was laid the year before, when Gar
field had just died. This brings into cousid-
nroft tr~,a law L
unteers were launched frequently during the
recent war of the rebellion, and the LOYAL
was another popular name. This cause
named the BalaklaVe and the Gettysburg,
but It was no doubt an uDprejudiced love of
pluck that named the Tbermopya. A Qua
ker probably owned the Peacemaker.
If there was not genuine love of the sea
in the breasts OF many men the American
foreign marine would have long since Who'll
ly disappeared Lindsay in his history speaks
Of the pride which shipowners AXE in their
ships and their business. Some own the Fly
Jog Cloud, the Spray, the Wave, the Cutwa-
ter, ,he Revolving Light, the Foam, the Mer-
maid, and the Sea Serpent. Some men who
are Of a romantic 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 unusually appropriate. The oceans,
gulfs, bays, capes, rivers, lakes, etc., are ali
represented. The lords, ladies', marquises
and clans OF Great Britain, and the counts,
princes and princesses are freely remem- |
bered. The one feature of American ships |
is influence OF home on the names. The |
mothers, wives, 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 in the world, |
Nearly one half of the American sailing yes- |
sells bear the names of women. There is no |
name in the female catalogue that has not
graced ship. IT was Senator Frye, think, |
when speaking on that section of the Ding
ley bill which permits owners to enroll or
tegister 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
his swee heart ont of port he 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 cheetar is past
finding ont, unless he was naturalist. That
hope springs eternal in the human breast is
shown by the number of Bonanzas afoat. In
marked contrast is the ship Reporter. The
is cheerful name. but what
may be said of the Clackmacuddin, the Erl-
ing Skjalgsen and the Khimjee Oodowjee is
more than can tell"
Horrors of African Slavery.
Mr.. Stanley said in recent lecture that
the local history of the Lower Congo mus |