WARSHIPS' NOMENCLATURE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11637, 15 August 1905, Page 2

WARSHIPS' NOMENCLATURE.

The Fate of Vessels Named

After Reptiles.

If one should bo so bold as to characterise the superstitious sailor as silly (says the Navy League Journal} he would at once declare that there is sufficient reason for his belief, and would proceed to prove that war vessels named after stinging and venomous tilings have been unlucky, and that the country should not be so indifferent to the men who follow "a life on the ocean wave" as to organise a 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 1781, and the other in 1847; but no vessel "bearing that name is known to exist now. Serpent, which is only a substitute name for snake, is an unlucky one also, for the ono wrecked in 1892 was the fourth British war vessel of that name to meet the same fate. Viper has oeen an unlucky name in the British Navy. The first one was wrecked in 1780, but the Admiralty would not swerve, and so kept the name on the list, each vessel meeting its doom, and the fourth was lost only recently. The French navy, has also been unlucky with vessels so named. The Viper, used in the British service after she became a prize from the French, was lost in 1793. The second was lost in 1797, and the fourth was recently lost in a collision off Guernsey. The Cobra, another British, war vessel, was lost recently at the same time as the Viper. Among other vessels similarly named and which met fates other than in battle are the Rattlesnake, ' in 1781 ; the Alligator, in 1782; the Crocodile, in 1784; the Adder, in 1846; three Lizards, two Dragons, and one Basilisk. All of these were of the British Navy. The list could be made larger by citing the records of other navies.

The Norsemen, who were so fond of naming their vessels against the laws of superstition and using hideous heads of dragons and reptiles on their high prows, were lesß unfortunate, and these did not meet with frequent disasters. They did have a belief, however, that it was unlucky and a sacrilege 'to select such a name as did Lord Dunraven for his first yacht to challenge for the America 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 broken up after only a short existence.