The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-11
Naval Vessels Named After Venem-
 ous Things Not Favored.

Naval Vessels Named After Venem- ous Things Not Favored.
 New York Tribune.
 ! Man-o-warsmen have strange preju-
 dice, not to say, antipathy, against nam | ing vessels after reptiles and stinging things. and she absence of such names in the nomenclature of vessels of the Amer ican navy suggests that the superstition
 among saiormen has had attention. There are only three vessels of the Amer ican navy bearing the names of venom
 ous things-the Adder. the Moccasin and the Scorpion. The first and second of these almost became total wrecks by strandng near the South Currituck Life | Saving Station in November last. but the
 Adder got off almost at once, and the Moccasln was fioated only a few days ago. Following so soon after the loss of ] the Cobra and the Viper torpedo boats of l the English navy. 1t has strengthened the belief among sailors that vessels so | named are sure to be unlucky. Some have attempted to show that the Mocca- sin bears an Indian name, but the ma 1 jority insist that she was named after a poisonous snake which Is to be found in the Southern part of the United States, and that such a name Is suitable to the character of a torpedo vessel. The Ad-
 der is also a torpedo boat. but the Scor-
 pion Is one of the yachts purchased in the time of the Spanish war and con- verted into a gunboat If one should be SO bold as to charac- terize the superstitious sailor as silly, he would at once declare that there Is suf- ficient reason for his belief, and would proceed to prove that war vessels named after stinging and venomous things have
 been unlucky, and that the country should
 not bo So indifferent to the men who fol- low "a life on the ocean wave" as to or ganiZe d mosquito fleet. That Snake is regarded as an unfortunate name for a vessel Is shown by the fact that two of that name have been lost one in 17S1,
 and the other In 1S47; but no vessel bear | ing that name is known to exist now | Serpent, which is only a substitute name ] for Snake, is an unlucky one, also, for the
 one wrecked in 1892 was the fourth Brit ish war vessel of that name to meet the
 same fate. Viper has been an unlucky
 name in the British navy. The first one was wrecked in 17S0, but the Admiralty would not swerve. and so it kept the | name on the list. each vessel meeting its doom. and the fourth was lost only re- gently. The French navy has also been
 unlucky with vessels so named The Vi- pere. used i7 the British service after she became prize from the French, was
 lost in l793. The second was lost a year
 later, the third in 1797. and the fourth
 was recently lost in q collision off Guern- sey.
 The Cobra, another British war vessel,
 was lost recently, at the same time as the Viper Among other vessels similar
 ly named and which met fates other than
 in battle are the Rattlesnake, in 17S1;
 the Alligator, in 17S2: the Crocodile, in l1S4; the Adder. in 1S46: three Lizards,
 two Dragons and ore Basilisk. All of these were of the British navy. The list
 could be made larger by citing the rec ords of other navies. The Norsemen who
 were so fond of naming their vessels
 against the laws of superstition. and us- Ing hideous heads of dragons and rep tiles on their high prows were less for tunate, and these did not meet with fre- quent disasters. They did have a belief however. that 1t was unlucky and a sac rilege to select such a name as did Lord
 Dunraven for his first yacht to challenge
 for the Americas cup. the Valkyrie. And this belief was strengthened when she
 was sunk by the Satanita. The second
 challenger. with the same name gave trouble and she was cut to pieces after only a short existence.
 Tn the matter of selecting names for
 navy ships Lieutenant Bainbridge-Hoff
 has made some suggestions in favor of re-
 verting to the old names and perpetuat- ing them. after the manner of some for
 eign countries, Under the present law,
 providing that ships of the first rate shall
 be named after States. five names only
 remain to be nsed-Delaware, North Car