The Springfield herald. (Springfield, Baca County, Colo.) 1887-1919, 1898-05-06
NAMES OF VESSELS.
UNITED STATES DOES NOT
PERPETUATE MEMORY.
Indian Names Are Popular-states and
Cities of the Union Lead In the
Honor of Having Battleships Chris
tened After Thorn. v

The nomenclature Of the vessels of
the United State IS navy is deficient in
names made famous by acts of naval
heroism, but abOunds in geographical
terms. which make list of Uncle
Sans ships resemble an extract from
postal guide, says the New York
Tribune. There is class of vessels in
the English navy known as the lad
mirar" class. where the names of Mel
son, Arson, Rodney, Benbow and other
naval leaders may be found, and this
same method Of perpetuating the
names of admirals exists in Russia.
The custom of preserving the names of
victories is also observed In many
countries by naming vessels after the
place near where the fight occurred.
But in the United States navy these
customs cannot be carried out, and, al
though the name of Farragut is hon
ored and revered by the navy, no large
ship Of any class bears the name of tho
hero Of Mobile bay. In the torpedo
boat class there are exceptions to this
rule, and the feet contains an Ericsson,
Cushing. Porter, a Foote, a Dahl
gren, a Dupont, Goldsborough and
others. The single-turreted monitors
bear Indian names, such as Comanche.
Catskill. Canonicus. Mahopac. Montauk.
Wyandotte. but not to the exclusion of
other names. for the list includes the
names OF Ajax and Manhattan. In
the old wooden navy the names Of
Franklin, Adams and Marion are still
preserved, along with Yantic. Alert and
Eipsic. The Indian name Is also rep
resented In this class by several YES
sells, among which are the Mohican.
the Monocacy and the Omaha. The
double-turreted monitors have names
which are to be found nowhere In ship
nomenclature except in the United
States navy. Among them are the
Amphitrite, the Miantonomah and the
Monadnock. The Vicksburg and the
Annapolis are composite gunboats and
are named after places where import
ant military operations took place. No
set rule seems to obtain for the nam
ing of gunboats The list includes the
Petrol, the Machias, the Nashville, tho
Helena, the Concord, the Bancroft and
the Bennington. The armored crui-
sers, like the New York and the Brook
protected cruisers, such as the Atlanta.
the Baltimore, the Charleston. the Chi
cago, the Cincinnati, the Columbia, the
Newark, the Raleigh and the San Fran
cisco, although the Olympia Is also of
that class. The amored battleshipe, OF
which the Maine was a good specimen,
are all named after states, except the
Kearsarge. which by special act Of con-
gress was named to perpetuate the old
ship which had won distinction In the
famous night with the Alabama before
the days of the steel battleship. The
old wooden navy is made up Of tho
venerable invalids, all put away In
comfortable quarters. The Constitu-
ton is the training-ship at Newport;
the Vermont Is used as a receiving
ship in the Brooklyn navy yard; the
Dale is used by the Maryland naval re-
serve; the Independence is the receiv-
ing ship at Mare island and the
jamestown is quarantine ship. The
Monongahela is attached to the train
ing squadron, the New Hampshire is
the headquarters of the New York
naval reserve and the Saratoga is
nautical-school ship. The man whose
name is the same as that of some city
may, II he become naval hero, see a
United States ship bear his name, but
unless that combination exists 1t is
doubtful II heroism would ever add
the name of an individual to the list of
limited States warships.