The age-herald., 1898-03-16
NAMES FOR NAVAL VESSELS.
Uncle sam's Ships Decorated Chiefly With
 Geographical Terms.


 From the New York Tribune.
 The nomenclature of the vessels Of ths IJnited States navy is deficient in names made famous by acts of naval heroism' but abounds in geographical terms, which make a list of Uncle Sams ships resemble an extract from a postal guide. There IS a. class of vessels in the English navy known as the admiral" class, where the names of Nelson. Anson, Rodney, Ben bow and other naval leaders may be found, and this same method of perpetuatfng the names of admirals exists in Russia. Tha custom of preserving the names of vic- tories at sea is also observed in many coun- tries by naming vessels after the place near where the fight occurred But In the united States navy these customs cannot De car- ried out, and although the name of Far raglrt is honored and revered by the navy, no large ship of any class bears the mama of the hero of Mobile bay.
 In the torpedo boat class there are ex- ceptions to this rule, and the f1rst contains an Ericsson, a Gushing, a Porter F'ootei a Dahlgren, a Dupont, a Go!dsborougn ana others.
 The singJturreted monitors bear Indian names. such as Comanche, Catskill. Canon. icus, Mahopac, Montauk, Wyandotte, pn not to the exclusion of other names, TOT ths last includes the names of Ajax and Man haitian In the old wooden navy the names of Franklin, Adams and Marion are stu preserved along with Yantic Alert ana Nipsic. The Indian name is also repre- sented in this class by several vesseisr among which are the Mohican the Monoc' acy and the Omaha.
 The double turreted monitors have names which are to be found nowhere in ship nos menclature except in the United states navy. Among them are the Amphitrite, the Miantonomah and the Monadnock Ina Vicksburg and the Annapolis are composite gunboats and are named after places whete important military operations took pface. No set rule seems to obtain Tor the nam ing of gunboats. The list includes the Pe- trel, the Machias, the Nashville, the He- lena the Concord, the Bancroft ana tna Bennington. The armored cruisers, nke the New York and the Boston, are named after cities as are the projected cruisersr such as the Atlanta, the Baltimore, tha Charleston, the Chicago, the Cincinnatit the Columbia, the Newark, the Raleigh ana the San Francisco, although the Oiympla is also of that class. The armored battle ships of which the Maine was good speci' men, are all named after states, except the Kearsage, which, by special act Of con- gress was named to perpetuate the old ship which had won distinction in the fa- nous fight with the Alabama before the days of the steel battle ship
 The old wooden navy is made up of the venerable invalids, all put away in com fortable quarters. The Constitution 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 Mary land naval reserve; the Independence Is the receiving ship at Mare Island. and the Jamestown is a quarantine ship. The Mo- nongamela Is attached to the training squadron, the New Hampshire is the head quarters of the New York naval reserve, and the Saratoga is a nautical school ship.
 The man whose name is the same as that of some city may, if he becomes naval hero, see United States ship bear his name, but unless that combination ex- ists 1t is doubtful if ever heroism would add the name of an individual to the list of United States war ships.