The Lamar register., 1898-05-07
NAMES OF VESSELS.
UNITED STATES DOES NOT
PERPETuATE MEMORY.
IadLan Names Are Pepuiar-states and
cities =. the unIon Lead In the
Honor of H&sinE Battlrship- Chris
tened After Them.

The nomenclature OF the vessels OF
the United States 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
a postal guide, says the New York
Tribune, There Is class OF vessels in
the English navy known as the '5d-
miraI'' class, where the names Of Mel
son, Anson, Rodney, Benbow and other
nEval leaders may be found. and this
same method Of psrpetuating 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 night occurred.
But in the United States navy these
customs cannot be carried out. and. al
though the name OF FarraEut Is hon
orsd and reyered by the navy. no large
ship OF any class bears the name Of the
hero Of Mobile bay. In the torpedo
boat class there are exceptions to this
rule, and the feet contains an Ericsson,
a Gushing, a Porter. a Foote a Dahl
Ereu. a Dupont. GoldsborouEh and
others The stnEle-tuFTeted mentors
bear Indian names. such as Comauche,
Catskil. Canunicus. MahUrac. Maatauk
wyaudutte, but not TO the exclusion OF
other names. for the list includes the
names Of Ajax and Manhattan. Ia
the old wooden navy the names 0t
Franklin. Adams and Marion are still
preserved. along with NantlC. Alert and
SlpsiC. The Indian name is also rep
resented In this class by several yes
sells. among which are the M0hicuar
the AonCcacy and the Omaha. The
doubTe-Iurreted uunIl0rs have names
which are TO be found nowhere In ship
nomenclature except ia the United
States navy. Among them are the
Amphitritc. the Miant0Romah and the
Mouadn0cs The NIckEburG ard the
Annapolis are composite Eunboats and
are named after places where import
ant military operations took place No
set rule seems TO obtain for the nam
ing Of guHSOats. The list includes the
Fetrel, the MAchias, the Nashville. the
Helena. the Concord, the Bancroft and
the Bennington The HTmored crui-
sers. like the New York and the Brook
lyn, are named after cities, As are the
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 amoreh batlleships, OF
which the Maine was a good specimen,
are all named after states. except the
KsarsarEe, which by special act OF con-
gress was named 10 peTpstuats the old
ship which had won distinction IN the
famous hEht with the Alabama before
the days OF the steel battieship. The
old wooden navy is made up OF the
venerable invalids. all put away In
comfortable quarters. The Constitu-
tion 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 reeeiv-
ing-ship al Mare island and the
jamestown is a quarantine ship. The
MnuOngahela Is attached to the train
ing squadron. the New Hampshire is
the headquarters OF the New York
naval reserve and the Saratoga IL a
nautical-school ship. The man whose
name Is the same as that OF some city
may, II he become a naval hero, see a
United States ship bear his name, but
unless that combination exists II IS
doubtful II heroism would ever add
the name OF an individual to the list Of
United States warships-