The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-05-07
THE BATTLESHIP VERMONT.

l. l.
Built for the vicissitudes of war, and
set afoat with aspirations never to
be realized the old battleship Yer
mont has completed the years allot-
ted to her existence and soon will
share the common fate of all her class
sold to the highest bidder-and all
that is useless of the old hulk will be
reduced to ashes, while that which is
valuable will be transformed into other
shapes.
Probably, few are familiar with her
history which is not without its in
terest despite the fact that she has
won no glorious victories nor ever
felt the shock of battle. She was the
outcome of the second war with Eng
land. All Americans know of the
famous sloop and frigate duels fought
on the seas in 1S12-15, till the British
commanders were instructed to avoid
single-handed contest with the ter.
rible American cruisers. But when
the British squadrons with their giant
ships of the line blockaded our ports,
we were very nearly at their mercy,
for we had no such ships and our
sloops and frigates could no longer
get to sea. Then it was that the
American people resolved to create
navy whose line of battleships could
meet the British on equal terms and
conquer them as they had conquered
others OF this era says the Brook
Ign Eagle:-
Three of these new Yankee ships
of the line were built in New England
the Alabama, afterward the New
Hampshire and still af1oat at Ports
mouth, and the Vermont and Ohio at
Boston. They were very large and
powerful vessels for their day-larger
and more powerful than the wooden
wallis that had made Nelson immor-
tai. They were rated as SIS, carrying
heavy guns on three decks and spread
ing on their three square rugged masts
vast area of canvas. The Ohio
when she cruised to the Mediterranean
was greeted with astonishment by
foreign squadrons and pronounced the
most formidable fighting ship ahoat.
But these splendid fabrics, with
their hundred cannon and their thou
sand men, never felt the shock of COM
bat with the proud foe whom they
were built to humble, for our second
war with Britain was our last one. A
few of these huge liners were commits
stoned and sent to show the starred
flag all over the world. Others re-
manned quietly in reserve at home,
awaiting the stern summons which
should loose their sails, open their
ports and light their battle lanterns.
So the new Vermont grew to be an
old Vermont, and when the hour of
need at last came the sailing line-of
battleship was obsolete and it was the
steam line-of battleships, the Mime
sofa, Wabash, Colorado, Roanoake,
which steered southwark to break the
sea defences of the Confederacy.
Thus it is that the Vermont, in
spite of her eighty years, has never
felt her decks reel with the crash of
shotted broadside. When called to
duty in the civil war it was to safe
and quiet harbor station, and her only
adventure was in gale off Cape Cod
when she lost her sails and rudder and
drifted helplessly at the mercy of
winds and waves for long weeks. Her
oaken hull, however, was staunchly
built and she held together till found
and safely conveyed to port. Since
that time, most Of her cruising has
been done at anchor.
Tho no such heroic memories clus-
ter round her as those which have
crowned other battleships, yet the
passing of the old ship has its pathetic
side for she is one of the last of the
great, brave and famous fleet that is
now forever leaving the ocean In
her day, the wooden sailing ship-of-
the-line was ON the sea the noblest and
most powerful fabric of mans crea-
ton, and the Vermont was one of the
most majestic of her type and kind.
Fortunate, indeed, for the nation that
our hearts of oak, as evidenced in the
battle of Santiago and Manila, are not
vanishing with the wooden walls "