Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-29
wARsHIPs OF THE SAME NAME
American Navy Has Had Five Bos.
 tons and Four Philadelphias.

'tThe recent i'll luck of the new bat t1eship Maine and the shoodoo' that is supposed to envelop the Texas recall ed to my mind the objections that have to, be overcome sometimes in the selection of name for new nnan-o'- war" said a well-known naval officer this z morning. Superstition is the reigning cause of, all the trouble we have mthfs regard. This superstition Is not confined to the sailors, but is shown by reputable citizens all over the country. Why, only the other day I ran across a long petition dated July 1, 1889, signed by some Of the most promineilt residents of the Pacific coast, among whom, by the way, was Irving M. Scott of the Union iron works, who recently died in San Fran cisco, protesting against the name of cruiser No. 5, then in process of con- struction at the Union iron works, which it had been determined to christen San Francisco.
 "The petition recounted disasters that had befallen vessels in the mer- chant service which had borne the name of San Francisco, and stated that these calamities were too numer- ous and regular to be merely coinci- dences, and as matter of mere hu- manity to the men who would be re- quired to man the vessel, and as a matter of duty to the citizens of the United States who had paid for the construction of the vessel cruiser, No. 5 should be given some other name or 'heIlish disaster would result No attention was, of course, paid to the protest, and as yet the San Francisco has not been visited with great disas- ter.
 Other names among the warships of the United States navy reproduce those of vessels that have met disas- ter The first Philadelphia, the name. sake of the arn1ored cruiser now on the naval list was sunk in battle with the British on Lake Champlain, and the second was wrecked off TripoH and her officers and crew were taken pris- oners, while she was recaptured by Decatur, only to be burned. The other two Philadelphias ended their careers more quietly.
 ''There have been several Balti- mores in the navy, one of which, after capturing an English brig during the l war of 1872, was herself captured by 1 the enemy. The others have no hard 1 luck record against them. There have been several named Vesuvius, the name of the dynamite-thrower now on the naval list The first was a bomb yes l sel and lost her guns the first year of 1 her purchase, while yet. another, also l a bomb vessel, had better fortune The l first Yorktown was wrecked on the | Cape of Verde islands, although event ually recovered, while two privateers of the same name, after doing a good deal of damage to British commerce,
 were themselves captured.
 sixty years ago the navy had a Concord, which was lost on the east coast of Africa. There have been many Dolphins in the service, taking pri- vateers and the regular navy. Several of them were captured, but many n1ora
 of them were more fortunate. Ther have been five Bostons in the regular navy, one of which was sunk in battle, while a second was captured by the British at the surrender of Charleston and third was burned at Washington 1 in 1914, so that she might not fall into l the hands of the British when they en- | tered the city. The fourth Boston was
 wrecked and lost in the West Indies. Then there is the Kearsarge, named after the famous ship wrecked on Ron- cador reef
 ''The navy departmnet might not at tach to a vessel the name of the ill- l fated Huron, when a thousand others were equally available, but it could not afford to examine the records of thou sands of merchant vessels, in this and other countries in order to be sure that a name it might select had never at any time been associated with dis aster.v