The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-06-25
NAMES OF SPANISH SHIPS.
Spain's Pride In Her Former Great
ness.

Don Antonio d'UlIoa's Scientific Pursuits
The oquendo Family's Brilliant Naval
Record-PeIayo the First of the Dons
and the First spaniard to Whip 100000
Hen with go.
New York Sun.
In recent times Spain has followed in
the naming of her warships the fashion
set long ago by her English Anniversaries.
The trst English ship Eknown to have
been distinctly a man of war was nan ed
| the Great Harry, after the King by whose
orders she was built and through the
whole course of English naval history
some of England's most formidable fight
ing ships have borne the names of kings
princes, princesses, or distinguished lead
ers. All this time. in the days of her hot
| test rivalry with England, and while she
| still retained a remnant of her ancient
hold upon the sea, Spain's ships, as
rule, received religious names, mostly, OF
course. names of saints, but including
Santissima Trinidad, Espiritu Santo, As.
unclon, and like names of sacred mys.
tsr1es. The change from the use of these
religious names to the use of names
famous in Spanish istory may signify a
oecay OF religious faith in the Spanish
people, or 1t may be that the nationa
conscience interpreted more than two
centuries of naval disaste as an express.
ion OF Divine displeasure at the former
custom. But at the present time there is
a tragic irony hidden under the names of
many of Spain's ill-equipped, wretchedly
handled ships.
One of Dewey's easiest victims at
Cayite was the Don Antonio d'UIloa.
The original Don Antonio was not, 1t is
true, distinguished as either sea fighter
or as an administrator. 1t was he who,
having been sent out to the Azores to in
tercept fleet of eight English merchant
men on their way home from India, al
lowed himself to become so absorbed in
scientific studies that he forgot to open
his sealed orders until it was too late to
execute them. Some years before that, in
1865, he had been appointed first Spanish
Governor of Louisiana, after the transfer
of that territory to Spain by secret treaty,
but the Ere nch colonists made themselves
SO troublesome to Don Antonio that he
soon resign ned the task into the hands of
one O'Reilly. AS an explorer. astrono-
mer, and engineer, however, d'Ulloa
ranks among the foremost men of his
time. At the age of 10 he was associated
with Lalande, thesfamous French smathe-
matician, in the work of determining
the n: easurement of a given arc of the
meridian at the equator. With this OBJ
ject he was seut by his government to
QUITO. Unfortunately, England went to
war with Spain before the given arc was
determined, and Don Antonio was hastily
summoned by the Spanish Governor of
Peru to the practical work of plannin e
Notifications for Callao against an expect
ed attack by Arson. The Notifications
were planned, and the young scientist
laboriously made his way back to his
meridian, but had hardly recommended
the work when a second summons came
A less earnest man might have lost
patience with science and devoted himself
to vengeance on his English tormentors,
but ION Antonio went back again to his
geOdetic work, stuck to it and wrote an
account of his South American expert
ences. He was afterward promoted to
high rank in the Bureau of Marine at
Madrid, was instrumental in founding
the great observatory at Cadiz and in
promoting scientific studies generally in
his country, and planned some of the
most important engineering works in
Spain. Neither his failure as a Governor
of Louisiana nor his bsent-mindedness
at the Azores seems to have lessened the
esteem In which he was held at court.
Still, if there is luck in the association of
names, the name of Don Antonio d Ulloa
ties, one would have thought, as ominous
for battleship.
1t was the Marques de la Ensenada,
whose name is now borne by light
armed cruiser, who supported d'Ulloa in
the project of the Quito survey and later
on gave him countenance in other practi-
Cal and scientific public enterprises.
Lemon de Somodevilla was by birth a
man of the plain people. In 1889 he acted
as commissary of the Spanish fleet on
the.north coast of Africa and little later
held similar post in the Spanish army
which invaded Naples. In recognition of
MS services he was made Minister of
marine and received the curious, though
appropriate, title of Marques de la En-
SSsnaoa, which means Marquis of the
monarchs, had loaded him with the re-
sponsibility Of well nigh all the civil and
military departments Of government. By
turn Of fortune, also Characteristic of
his country and time, the Marques, some
years later, was superseded and practically
banlshed from the capital. He was a
trongadministrative reformer and probaaa
Oily man far ahead of his times His
policy, which favored France as against
England, and tended to remove restric-
tions on commerce, fell with him. Never
Gheless, there is evidence of Somodevilla S
force OF personality, as we'll as curious
glimpse of Spanish governmental methods
IN the statement of his biographer that
tne King privately correspondent with him
ana sometimes took his advice on affairs
OF state after his retirement.
me exploit of Lieut.. Hobson has prao-
ideally deprived Spain of the services of
Two OF her finest cruisers il the Vizcaya
and the Almirante Oduendo. The
Oquendo is named IN honor of the best
ana boldest and most famous sea fighters
spain ever possessed. Three successive
generations of Oquendos distinguished
themselves in the Spanish naval service
between the middle of the sixteenth and