Names of Warships.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XIII, 26 March 1904, Page 55

Names of Warships.

RUSSIAN AND JAPANESE.

A certain amount of interest always attaches to the names of warships. In view of the Russo-Japanese war, a brief account of the meaning of the names of the warring nations’ fighting vessels may not be uninteresting. Chitose means “a thousand years”; K&sagi, Yoshino, Mikasa, and Asama are the names of Japanese mountains, the last-named being volcanic. The war vessel Fuji is, of course, named in honour of the holy mountain, the snow-capped peak, so dear to the Japanese heart and so familial - in Japanese objects of art. Idzuino and Iwate are names of Japanese provinces. Takasago is the name bf a beautiful place which figures in a romantic Japanese story or legend. Asahi means “the morning sun,” which also is the design, as everyone is aware, of the Japanese flag. Yashimo and Shikishima are poetical names of Japan. Hatsuse has a signification most difficult to describe in English, but it means, in a general way, a spring or the source 'of a brook or stream. Yakumo means “eight clouds,” and has a long legendary story at the baek of it. The Japanese smaller war craft, like torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers, bear the names of Japanese birds. A rather striking feature of the somewhat. jaw-breaking names of Russia’s war vessels is their religious character, due to the strength of the Greek Church in all things Muscovite. Rayan means a “bard” or “singer.” Dimitri Donskoi was the name of the Muscovite Grand Duke who in the fourteenth century built the Kremlin at Moscow, and beat the Tartars in a great and decisive battle on the banks of the Don River, for ever breaking their power, and staying their invasion. He took his surname from the name of the river where he won his victory. Dvcnadzat Apostolay means "the twelve apostles.” Kniaz means “prince,” hence Kniaz Potemkine is Prince Potemkine. Navarin is the Russian name of the Greek Gulf, where, in 1827, the Turkish fleet was beaten by the combined English, Russian, and French fleets, under Admiral Codrington, of the British Navy. Orel is a town in Russia, founded in 1564 as a frontier fort against the Tartars.

The religious feature is again prominent in the two names Oslaybia and Peresviet. They were two monks who bore a prominent part in the battle of Koolikovo against the Tartars in 1380. Pallada is the name of the Greek goddess Pallas- The Petropavlovski is named in honour of a seaport town in Kamtsehatka. The Poltava is named from a river, province, and town in Southern Russia. It was here, in July, 1709, that Peter the Great beat Charles XII. of Sweden in one of the greatest battles in Russian annals.

The Russians have two powerful armoured cruisers in the Rurik and the Rossia. The latter name needs no explanation. The former was the name of the founder of the Russian .State. He was a Norse chief, and died in 879. His descendants were the Czars of Russia until the end of the sixteenth century. The Sevastopol is, of course, named after the Russian port in the Crimea which so long withstood siege by the allied British, French, and Turkish troops in the Crimean war.

The Borodina is named for the great battle between the French and Russian armies during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Vitiaz means “knight” or "hero.” And, once more, there is the ecclesiastical feature in the name Tria Sviatitelia, which means “three saints,” the trio of great theologians of the Greek - Church —St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. John Chrysostomos. The name Pobieda means “victory,” which the Russians have yet to attain.