Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-08-17
NAMING or THE MONTEREY
story. -6fs the Manner in Which the Mon.
itur Received Its Christening.

Story 6f the Manner in Which the Mon.
itur Received Its Christening.
Thestory of the naming of the big
coast defense monitor Monterey, has
never been told in print When prep
tarations for her launching were being
made at San Francisco, Irving NJ.
Scott, general manager of the Union
Iron works, was at Washington, and
number Of Californians wired him to
use his influence with Benjamin F:
Tracy, then secretary of the navy, TO
have, the ship named for some Califor-
nie town, and Scott hit upon Monte
reg as o name that appealed to him as
appropriate and the request was ao-
cdrdingly preferred.
4nI'ftsee what I can do, said the
aniable secretary and; ringing bell,
he summoned the head of the war de-
partment having the matter in charge.
When the matter was explained the
chief =of bureau replied!
1..But you know, Mi. Secretary, the
rules require that ships of that class
shall be named in honor OF some naval
sbattle2it which the Americans have
participated. So far as I know there
has never been battle of Monterey"
This rule has been changed since,
but Mr.. Scott, seeing the corner he
was in as the matter stood, retorted
promptly.
"A .IYes, tits true that there has never
been q battle at Monterey, but let me
tell you story. In 1916, when we
were having our little unp1easantness
with, Mexico, an American man-of-war
WIS lying iii the harbor of Mazatlan.
Near her lay On Englishman, who
lad an uncomfortable way of keeping
her guns pointed in the direction of
the American. Now, the Yankee
skipper, who was typical of his class,
got It into his head to raise his flag at
Monterey, CAL, which was the capital
of that territory, and it so happened
sthat:the Englishman got the same no
tion just about the same time. The
Yankee suspected something of the
kind and made up his mind not to be
outwitted.
tIate that afternoon he sent q LOT
of his men ashore and when the boats
returned to the ship without them the
Britisher made up his mind that they
would not be back until the following
|Ssaay. Satisfied with this conclusion,
ne sat down to wait. But the Yankee
/ was a hustler, as Yankee sailors always
are. The night was as dark as stack
of black cats, and .long about 10
O'Clock the American boats with 'muf-
fed oars rowed the crew back to the
ship, and in the inky darkness that
Yankee skipper slipped his cables and
warped his ship out of the harbor
without the fact even being suspected
by the Englishman. When day broke
he was fifty miles up the coast, scud-
ding along before ten-knot breeze:
e"The other fellow saw he had been
lsoutgeneraled, but he made an effort to
I,rectify his blunder. He had smart
crew and fast ship. There was nd
reason, he figured, why he might not
overtake his rival and beat him to
Monterey. He tried it and came very
nearly making a success of it: He
sailed into Monterey harbor just
two hours behind the American and
dropped his anchor in time to see the
stars and stripes rise to tile head Of
the flagstaff in the plaza and futter to
the breeze. Monterey and California
were ours"
uDon't say another word, Scott, {"
said Secretary Tracy. ''That ship shall
be the Monterey"
r. And Monterey she is.