Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-05-07
Naming Naval Vessels.

faw weeks ago we discussed in this
column the proposition of an eminent
naval officer that our navy perpetuate
in its new battleships the names OF our
famous fighting ships of former days.
All hut half dozen of our states now
have battleshiDs bearing their Names
and when that list is exhausted this
proposition deserves and will doubtless
have a favorable consideration. There
is much to recommend it. and there is
also much merit in the suggestion
which another naval officer makes in a
letter to the New York Sun. He pro-
poses that not only should our new
naval vessels be named for those which
carried our flag to victory in former
wars. but also for vessels of the en-
envy which our navy has captured or
destroyed in action. This is the plan in
the British navy and is an admirable
way of keeping fresh the memory of
victories on the seas. The captured or
destroyed ship belongs to the victor,
and it is only fair that the name go
along with it.
Should we ever adopt the system OF
naming American ships for the vessels
which the American navy has captured
in action there is a long list from which
to chose. At the naval academy at An
napols there are preserved dozens OF
battle flags captured on the seas. Be
ary war and the close of the year lSl2
there were As commissioned warshlps
of the British navy, commanded by
English naval officers, which were cap
tured or destroyed by the vessels OF
the American navy. This is leaving
out of consideration the hundreds of
prizes made of armed merchantmen;
and the privateers captured. The list
also omits all vessels destroyed or cap
tured by American privateers, no small
one in itself Following is a list of the
British warships captured or destroyed
by the American navy, in it's infancy,
with the number of guns which each
one of them carried:
Edward % Scraps 600
Racehorse 90 Countess of
Mellish uM Scarborough COZ
Druid 14 ATLANTA 90
Drake COD e.. Little Belt CD
Jason (2O) Chippewa O
Trepassez QD Epervier Q0
Savage 800 Reindeer QS
General Monk (20) Avon QS)
Hawke co Confiance go
Bolton O2) Linnet d')
Fox t28) Chubb 'll)
Little Belt (22) Finch CID
Guerrero (SS) Penguin (l9)
Frolic (22) Cyane (3D
Macedonian CD Lcvant 'zp
Java (iS) NAUTILUS 'lb
Peacock (2O) Detroit (o)
3oxer "a Californian 90
Detroit Q9 Duke OF
Queen Charlotte 90 Gloucester QD
Lady Provost Q3) Eagle %
Hunter um Black Snake %
But this is not all the story. From
the French we took the corvette Ror-
ceau of "a guns, and the frigate In
surgente of SO guns. The French frig-
ate Vengeance of so guns, was hand
somely whipped in an engagement with
the Constellation, and struck to her.
The Constellation lost her mizzenmast
in the engagement: and the French
man. whose spars We're intact, man
aged to effect his escape in the dark
ness. SO that his ship cannot count on
the list of the captured or destroyed
From the Barbary states our navy
took the following vessels: Meshoboha
(22). Mashouda (46), Estido COY, Trans
fer Q6), ana Trpoli O. Mexico did not
have much of a navy. SO in the war
with that country our naval captures
consisted of but two small gunboats.
I.ibertad and Alerta. And then there
is the long list of Spanish ships des-
troyed at Manila ard Santiago and the
others captured during the summer of
1898.