Name Histories S

Ship Name Histories - Database of histories of ship names beginning with letter S.

Sabre

Name Origin: - Sword.

Sabre

Name Origin: Sword.

Sabretache

Name Origin: - Sabretache. Literally, “sword pocket”; from the German tasche, pocket.

Sachsen

Name Origin: Kingdom of Saxony, one of the Federal States of the Empire. Dresden is its capital.

Sado

Name Origin: A river on the west coast of Portugal. Setubal Bay is situated at its mouth.

Saetta

Name Origin: Arrow.

Saffo

Name Origin: Sappho. Celebrated poetess of ancient Greece, whose odes have in part been preserved to us. She dwelt on the island of Mytilene, and legend relates that she cast herself into the sea out of unrequited love for the youth Phaon. This vessel is called after the star of that name.

Saga

Name Origin: In Norse mythology the goddess of wisdom and poetry, the friend and adviser of Odin. The Old Norse semi-historical tales and poems are called “Sague.”

Sagaie

Name Origin: Assegai

Sagami

Name Origin: the province in which the Yokosuka naval station is situated. The name has been bestowed on the Russia battleship Peresviet, scuttled at Port Arthur in December 1904 and subsequently raised.

Sagi

Name Origin: the snowy heron.

Sagittario

Name Origin: Archer. This vessel is called after the star of that name.

Saida

Name Origin: The ancient Sidon, a town on the coast of Syria, near Beyrout. A squadron of four British ships (Thunderer, Cyclops, Gorgon, and Stromboli), the Austrian frigate Guerriera, Captain the Archduke Frederick, and four Turkish corvettes, the whole under Captain Napier, R.N., bombarded the place, held by Mehemet Ali of Egypt, in September 1840, and took it by assault ion the 26^th of that month with a force of 1000 seamen landed from the ships.

Sainte Barbe

Name Origin: - Saint Barbara, a martyr of the third century. It is recounted of her that when imprisoned within a strong tower the lightning smote the tower asunder, and she came forth unhurt. Hence she is one of the saints who were appealed to in danger from fire and lightening. Under her protection were placed the powder magazines of ships. She is the patron saint of soldiers, especially of the artillery.

Saint Louis

Name Origin: - Louis IX, King of France; born 1215, died 1270. He was cannoised by Pope Boniface VIII, in 1297, for his virtuous life and services as a Crusader. He reformed the administration of the law, and, though a devout son of the Church, withstood the Papal encroachments in his dominions. In 1248 he led a crusade to Egypt, but was captured by the Saracens in 1250, and only returned to France on being ransomed in 1254. In 1270 he led another crusade against the Mahomedans in Tunis, but fell a victim to the pestilence which broken out in his camp there.

Salamander

Salamandra

Name Origin: Salamander.

Salaminia

Name Origin: “Salaminian,” inhabitant of the island of Salamis, near the Piraeus; the name of one of two sacred ships of the Athenians which annually bore their gifts to the shrine of Apollo at Delos, and which during the Peloponnesian War acted as scouts to the Athenian fleet. In 428 B.C. the Spartan fleet, having failed to relieve Mytilene, sailed from the Bay of Ephesus to make a sudden descent upon Corcyra (corfu). The Salaminia and her sister ship, the Paralos, which had been detached by the Athenian Admiral from Mytilene, guessing at the enemy’s intentions, outstripped him and brought up a detachment of Athenian ships from Naupaktos (opposite Patras) just in time to save the hastily equipped Corcyrian fleet from utter destruction and the island from capture.

Salmon

Salvador Correa

Name Origin: Salvador Correa de Sa Benevides distinguished himself by retaking the Portuguese West African settlement of Angola from the Dutch in 1648.

Sandpiper

San Giorgio

Name Origin: St George. According to the legends he was a nobleman of Cappadocia (in Asia Minor), and served a tribune in the Roman army during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. He saved the life of a noble maiden by slaying a dragon, which was about to devour her. For his defence of the persecuted Christians he suffered martyrdom on April 23^rd, 290 (according to others, 303). During the Crusades, the worship of St George as the patron of chivalry came into vogue in Western Europe. The ship name commemorates the ancient maritime republic of Genoa, of which St George was the patron saint.

Sankt Georg

Name Origin: Saint George. Accroding to the legends he was a nobleman of Cappadocia (in Asia Minor), and served as a tribune in the Roman Army during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. He saved the life of a noble maiden by slaying a dragon, which was about to devour her. For his defence of the persecuted Christians he suffered martyrdom on April 23^rd, 290 (according to others, 303). During the Crusades the worship of St. George as the patron of chivalry came into the vogue in Western Europe.

San Marco

Name Origin: St Mark, the Apostle, patron saint of the ancient maritime republic of Venice.

San Martino

Name Origin: Site of the battle in which the Sardinians, under Victor Emmanuel, defeated the Austrians on June 24^th 1859, on the same day as the French defeated them at Solferino.

Sansego

Name Origin: One of the islands in the Gulf of Quarnero in the Adriatic.

Santa Fe

Name Origin : One of the provinces of the Argentine Republic.

Santinella

Name Origin: Sentimental.

Sao Gabriel

Name Origin: St. Gabriel. The name of the caravel, which carried Vasco da Gama on his voyage of discovery in 1497.

Sao Paulo

Name Origin: One of the twenty United States; its capital bears the same name.

Sao Raphael

Name Origin: St Raphael. The name of one of Vasco da Gamma’s vessels in 1497, commanded by his brother Paulo da Gama. On the return journey she was wrecked near Mombasa.

Sape

Name Origin: - Sap, a military term in siege operations.

Saphir

Name Origin: - Sapphire.

Sapphire

Sappho

Name Origin: Celebrated poetess of ancient Greece, whose odes have in part been preserved to us. She dwelt on the island of Mitylene, and legend relates that she cast herself into the sea out of unrequited love for the youth Phaon.

Saracen

Name Origin: Name given by the Christians to the Mahommedan Arabs and Moors in the Middle Ages.

Saratoff

Name Origin: A town on the Volga, and capital of the government of that name

Sarbacane

Name Origin: - Air cane, a tube from which a bullet can be blown by the mouth.

Sardegna

Name Origin: The Island of Sardinia. After having in turn been a Carthaginian colony and a Roman dependency after having belonged successively to the Vandals and Saracens, and having alternatively been in the possession of Pisa, Genoa, and Spain, it was conquered by England for Austria in 1708. In 1720 Victor Amadeus II, King of Savoy, ancestor of the present King of Italy, exchanged Sicily for Sardinia, and together with his possessions on the mainland, erected it into the Saqrdinian kingdom, which in 1860 became incorporated with the kingdom of Italy.

Sarjento Aldea

Name Origin: Sergeant of Marines of the Esmeralda in the memorable action off Iquique on May 21^st 1879. He followed Captain Prat in boarding the Huascar, and was killed at his side.

Sarpen

Name Origin: The name of the falls of the river Glommen.

Satellit

Name Origin: Satellite

Satsuki

Name Origin: A poetical name for May, the fifth month. The vessel bearing this name was formerly the Biedovi, in which admiral Rozhdestvensky sought to escape after the battle of the Sea of Japan, in May 1905, had gone against him; but she was captured with all onboard.

Satsuma

Name Origin: A province in the extreme south of the island of Kiushiu.

Sazanami

Name Origin: A ripple.

Sborul

Name Origin: Flight, from the act of flying.

Scharnhorst

Name Origin: General Gerhard von Scharnhorst, born 1756, died 1813, the reorganiser of the Prussian Army after its terrible defeats in the early wars against Napoleon. A born Hannoverian, he only entered the Prussian Army in 1801. He was the author and initiator of the first short service system, which automatically created a trained reserve. In the campaign of 1813 against Napoleon he served as blucher’s Chief of the Staff, and was mortally wounded at the battle of Grossgorschen.

Schlesien

Name Origin: Silesia, one of the provinces of the kingdom of Prussia.

Schleswig Holstein

Name Origin: One of the provinces of the kingdom of Prussia. Until 1864 the kings of Denmark were also Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein. Kiel, the principal naval port of the empire, is in this province.

Schorpioen

Name Origin: Scorpion.

Schwaben

Name Origin: Suabia, a former German Duchy lying between the Rhine, the Neckar, and the Lech. It played as important part in the history of the German Middle ages. The Suabians are the descendants of the old German tribes known as the “Allemani,” and now people Wurttemberg, Baden, and a part of Bavaria.

Schwalbe

Name Origin: Swallow.

Schwalbe

Name Origin: Swallow

Schwarfschutz

Name Origin: Sharp-shooter

Scorpione

Name Origin: Scorpion.

Scylla

Name Origin: In Homers' Odyssey, Scylla and Charybdis were two sea monsters dwelling on opposite sides of a narrow strait. Scylla had six long necks and mouths, with treble rows of teeth, wherewith she seized and devoured the victims flung up by the whirlpools of Charybdis. Odysseus (Ulysses) successfully passed between the these two monsters, but Scylla snatched six of his men off his ship. The name was later given to a rocky point on the Sicilian shore of the Straits of Messina.

Scylla

Name Origin: In Homer’s Odyssey Scylla and Charybdis were two-sea monsters dweeling on opposite sides of a narrow strait. Scylla had six necks and mouths, with treble rows of teeth, wherewith she seized and devoured the victims flung up by the whirlpools of Charybdis. Odysseus (Ulysses) successfully passed between these two monsters, but Scylla snatched six of his men off his ship. The name was later given to a rocky point on the Sicilian shore of the Straits of Messina.

Seagull

Seahorse

Seal

Sealark

Sebenico

Name Origin: A seaport town of Dalmatia

Secretar

Name Origin: Secretary bird

See Adler

Name Origin: Sea eagle, the bald headed eagle.

Seehund

Name Origin: Seal

Senna

Name Origin: A village on the Zambesi, which was of great importance in ancient times. Remarkable buildings of very great size having been discovered there in recent times.

Sentinel

Serdang

Name Origin: Territory on the east coast of Sumatra.

Serditi

Name Origin: Irascible.

Serpa Pinto

Name Origin: Alexander riocha de Serpa Pinto, military officer and African explorer, born 1846. In 1877-1878 he crossed South Africa from Benguela to Natal, exploring the Zambesi, and in 1885 explored the land west of Lake Nyassa. He actively opposed the British advances in the latter regions in 1889, and thus almost caused a conflict between Portugal and England. Recalled in 1890, he was elected a member of the Cortes, and afterwards became Governor of the Cape Verde Islands.

Serpente

Name Origin: Serpent, snake. This vessel is named after the star of that name.

Shannon

Name Origin: The largest river in Ireland; it flows past Limerick into the Atlantic.

Shark

Sharpshooter

Shearwater

Shen-Han

Name Origin: Precious Vessel.

Shigure

Name Origin: A gentle rain.

Shikinami

Name Origin: The waves chasing one another. Formerly the Russian gunboat Gaidanmak, scuttled at Port Arthur in December 1904 and afterwards raised.

Shikishima

Name Origin: Literally, “The outspread isles.” A poetical name for Japan. It was originally applied to the ancient capital in Yamato province.

Shinonome

Name Origin: The day dawn.

Shirakumo

Name Origin: A white cloud.

Shiranui

Name Origin: Literally, “The unknown fires.” The term is applied to what in ancient times were declared to be “the dragon’s lamps,” and took the form of of globular masses of flame that annually, in immense numbers, issued from the surface of the sea on the west coast to Kiushiu, principally at daybreak on the first of the eighth month, which, according to the Old Calendar, fell somewhere about the end of August or early in September.

Shirataka

Name Origin: White hawk.

Shiratsuyu

Name Origin: White dew.

Shirayuki

Name Origin: White snow.

Shirotae

Name Origin: A poetical term for whiteness.

Sho-Ko

Name Origin: The Japanese name for the Sungari River in Manchuria. This vessel was formerly the Russian Sungari, captured in 1904, and afterwards renamed the Matsuye, of which Sho-ko is another version.

Shtandart

Name Origin: Standard.

Sibirski Strelok

Name Origin: Siberian sharp-shooter.

Sibiryak

Name Origin: Inhabitant of Siberia.

Sibogo

Name Origin: Territory on the west coast of Sumatra.

Sicilia

Name Origin: the island of Sicily. Many flourishing Greek colonies existed in ancient times on its eastern and south-western coasts, whilst the Carthaginians established themselves on the northern. The island became a Roman province 210 B.C. In the ninth century the Saracens conquered it, but were expelled by the Normans in the eleventh century. From 1285 to 1409 an Aragonese dynasty reigned in Sicily, and when it became extinct the island fell by inheritance to Spain. From 1713 to 1720 it belonged to the House of Savoy, which ceded it to Austria, and Austria in 1738 ceded it to the Spanish bourbons reigning in Naples. In 1860 Sicily shook off the bourbon yoke, and became part of the kingdom of Italy.

Siegfried

Name Origin: The chief hero of the Niebelung saga, from which the great epic poem of the middle Ages, the “Niebelungen Lied,” is derived. A son of the king of the Low Countries, Siegfried in his youth slew a dragon, and by bathing in his blood became invulnerable, except for a spot between his shoulder baldes, which had been accidentally covered by a leaf. He accompanied his friend Gunther, king of the Burgundians, in guise of a vassal when the latter went to woo the norse Amazon Brunhilda. Covered with the cap of invisibility, which he had taken with the dragon’s hoard, he assisted Gunther in defeating Brunhilda in various athletic contests, and thus won her for his friends. In reward he received the hand of Grimhilda, Gunther’s sister. Before long Brunhilds discovered the deception which had been practised on her, and became Siegfried’s deadly enemy. Instigated by her, Hagen, one of Gunther’s vassals, during a hunting expedition, whilst Siegfried was bending over a spring to drink, aimed his spear at the vulnerable spot in his body and struck him dead.

Sig

Name Origin: A fish of the salmon-trout kind, found in the Neva.

Siguard

Name Origin: A mighty Viking and king in Sweden.

Silatch

Name Origin: Strong man.

Sild

Name Origin: Herring.

Silni

Name Origin: Vigorous.

Silure

Name Origin: - Silurus or sheat fish.

Silvado

Name Origin: A Brazilian naval officer killed in action at Curuzu, during the war with Paraguay.

Simoun

Name Origin: - The “simoon” or “simoom,” the hot dry wind of the desert.

Sinop

Name Origin: Sinop, a town on the south coast of the Black Sea, where in 1853 a Turkish squadron was destroyed by Admiral Nakhimoff.

Sirene

Name Origin: - Siren, mermaid.

Siretul

Name Origin: The River Siretu- flowing through Romania.

Sirio

Name Origin: Sirius, the dog star (Canis majoris).

Sirius

Name Origin: The Dog Star.

Sir James Douglas

Name Origin: Admiral Sir James Douglas, Bart; born 1703, died 1787. As Commander he took a distinguished part in the first battle of Quebec 1759. He carried the news of the surrender home to the king, who knighted him. In 1761 he commanded a squadron in the Leeward Islands. He was created a Baronet in 1786.

Sirocco

Name Origin: - The southeast wind of the Mediterranean.

Sir William Peel

Name Origin: Captain Sir William Peel, Royal Navy; born 1824, died 1858. He entered the naval service in 1838, became a Lieutenant in 1844, Commander 1846, and a Captain 1849. At the outbreak of the Indian mutiny in 1857 he was in China in command of the Shannon, frigate. Taking her to Calcutta, he formed his whose ship’s company into a naval brigade, which landed about the middle of august with ten of his 8-inch gun as a siege train. Proceeding up country, Captain Peel fought his first action on November 1^st at Kudjwa, assisted at the first relief of Lucknow that month, and the capture of Cawnpore in December. On January 2^nd 1858, he distinguished himself at the battle of Kallee-Nuddee, receiving the K.C.B. soon after. On March 9^th, during the siege of Lucknow, he was wounded, but when nearly recovered he was attacked by small pox, to which he succumbed on April 27^th, on his march back to Calcutta.

Sivootch

Name Origin: A species of beaver.

Sjaelland

Name Origin: Zealand, the largest island of Denmark.

Skaggald

Name Origin: In Norse mythology one of the Valkyres or “shield maidens” who bear the fallen heroes from the battlefield to Walhalla.

Skagul

Name Origin: In Norse mythology another of the Valkyres.

Skarv

Name Origin: Cormorant.

Skat

Name Origin: Skate (fish).

Skipjack

Skirmisher

Skjold

Name Origin: Shield.

Skoldmon

Name Origin: “shield maiden.” In Norse mythology another name for the Valkyres, heavenly maidens in the service of Odin, who descend upon the battlefield mounted on cloud steeds, and thence bear the fallen hero to Walhalla, the seat of the gods.

Skori

Name Origin: Rapid.

Skorpion

Name Origin: Scorpion.

Skorpion

Name Origin: Scorpion.

Skrei

Name Origin: God.

Skuld

Name Origin: In Norse mythology one of the three “Nornas,” goddesses of fate. She presided over the Past.

Sladen

Name Origin: Colonel Sir E. B. Sladen, born 1830, died 1890. During the war with Burma (1885-1886) he captured by boarding this vessel, which lay under the guns of Ava fort, she strongly armed and manned by King Theebaw’s men. Colonel Sladen was knighted, and the vessel, on passing into British possession, renamed after him.

Slava

Name Origin: Glory.

Slepiner

Name Origin: In Norse mythology the miraculous horse of the god Odin. It was supposed to have right legs.

Smardan

Name Origin: A village near Widin, taken by the Romanian troops on January 12^th 1878, during the war with Turkey.

Smerve

Name Origin: A volcano in Eastern Java.

Smeul

Name Origin: Kitre (a toy).

Smolensk

Name Origin: A Russian town.

Smyeli

Name Origin: Fearless.

Smyetlivi

Name Origin: Keen.

Snapper

Snar

Name Origin: Quick, swift.

Snipe

Sobjornen

Name Origin: Fur seal, seal bear.

Soel

Name Origin: Seal.

Soimul

Name Origin: Eagle.

Soloven

Name Origin: Sea lion.

Solve

Name Origin: Solve Jute (the Jutlander) was a Viking and pirate of Niordo in Norway who succeeded in seizing on part of Jutland. About the year 700 Oesten, the king and “overlord” of Upsala in Sweden, was feasting his guests at Lofo, near Stockholm, when Solve landed at night, and setting fire to the King’s hall, burned him and all his followers. From there Solve proceeded to the lordship of Sigtuna, which he took and of which he made himself king. The Swedes fearing that he would deprive them of their liberty and independence, and seeing that he aimed at the over lordship of Upsala, conspired against him and killed him.

Som

Name Origin: Silurus (fish).

Sophie

Name Origin: Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar, born 1824, died 1897, consort of the late Grand Duke Charles, a princess of the Netherlands.

Souffleur

Name Origin: - Blower (fish).

Soya

Name Origin: The Japanese name for La Perouse Strait, between Yeso and Sakhalien. She was formerly the Russian cruiser Varyag, sunk after the battle of Chemulpo, February 9^th 1904, and subsequently rose.

Spahi

Name Origin: - The name is derived from the Turkish word “Sipahi,” meaning “mounted soldier,” and is borne by four regiments of Algerian mounted rifles which were organised in 1831 soon after the conquest of that country.

Spalato

Name Origin: A seaport town of Dalmatia

Spanker

Spartiate

Name Origin: French for Spartan. Commemorates the capture at the Battle of the Nile, August 1st 1798, of the French 74-gun ship Spartiate, Captain M.J. Emeriau, by the squadron under Sir Horatio Nelson. She was the third ship anchored in the French line in the Bay of Aboukir. After having gallantly resisted the Theseus, Vanguard (Nelson's flagship), Minotaur, and Audacious, the flagship being her chief opponent, she struck about 9pm. She was speedily refitted and commissioned for service in the Royal Navy under her own name.

Sparviero

Name Origin: sparrow-hawk

Speedwell

Speedy

Sperber

Name Origin: Sparrow hawk.

Sperber

Name Origin: sparrow hawk

Spetsai

Name Origin: A small island in the gulf of Nauplia. When the War of Independence broke out in 1821, it fitted out a squadron of 44-armed vessels and 27 cutters, which greatly distinguished it under the command of its leader Androuyos.

Sphaktiria

Name Origin: Sphacteria (sphagia), a small fortified island at the entrance of the Bay of Navarin, on the southwest coast of Morea. It has twice sustained memorable sieges. The first was in 425 B.C., during the Peloponnesian War, when 420 Spartans defended the fort against an overwhelming Athenian force. The second was in 1825, during the War of Independence, when 1500 Greeks under Mavrokordatos held out against greatly superior Turkish forces, and were almost all put to the sword when the place fell.

Sphendoni

Name Origin: Sling.

Sphinx

Name Origin: In Greek mythology a monster with a woman's head and bust and a lion's body and limbs. She lay in wait on the road to Thebes and propounded a riddle to every passer-by, and when he could not answer it, devoured him alive. Oedipus, however, solved the riddle, and the Sphinx dashed herself down a precipice.

Sphinx

Name Origin: In Greek mythology a monster with a women’s head and bust and a lion’s body and limbs. She lay in wait on the road to Thebes and propounded a riddle to every passer by, and when he could not answer it, devoured him alive. Oedipus, however, solved the riddle, and the Sphinx dashed herself down a precipice. The legend of the Sphinx was derived from the symbolical sculptured monsters known under that name which the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians set up before their temples.

Spica

Name Origin: The star (Virginis).

Spica

Name Origin: The principal star of the constellation of Virgo.

Spiteful

Spitfire

Sprightly

Springer

Name Origin: Porcupine.

Springeren

Name Origin: Tunny fish.

Squalo

Name Origin: shark.

St George

Name Origin: The patron saint of England. According to the legends he was a nobleman of Cappadocia (in Asia Minor), and served as a tribune in the Roman army during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. He saved the life of a noble maiden by slaying a dragon which was about to devour her. For his defence of the persecuted Christians he suffered martyrdom on April 23rd 290 (according to some 303). During the Crusades the worship of St George as the patron of chivalry came into vogue in Western Europe.

St Thomas

Name Origin: An island in the West Indies, not far from Porto Rico. It has belonged to Denmark since 1672.

St Vincent

Name Origin: Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, Earl of St Vincent; born 1734, died 1823. He ran away to sea as a boy, rose to be a Lieutenant in 1754, and was promoted to Commander in 1759 for distinguished service in the Quebec expedition. As Captain of the Foudroyantvhe fought in Keppel's action off Brest on July 27th 1778. With the same ship four years later he captured the 74-gun ship Pegase, and then assisted at the relief of Gibraltar by Lord Howe. He attained Flag rank in 1787. On the outbreak of the French war in 1793 Jervis was sent as Vice Admiral to the West Indies, where he operated against the French islands. In 1795, promoted to Admiral, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, where he displayed great activity and speedily brought the fleet to a very high state of efficeincy. On February 14th 1797, he gained a splendid victory off Cape St Vincent over the Spanish fleet of 27 sail, which he attacked with only 15. Having been raised to the Peerage shortly before, he was now rewarded with the Earldom of St Vincent. Not long afterwards a serious mutiny broke out in his fleet before Cadiz, which he suppressed with prompt and necessary severity. In 1799, ill health forced him to lay down his command and return home; but the following year he succeeded Lord Bridport in command of the Channel Fleet, where he at once commenced that system of close and unremitting watch by the whole British force over the enemy's fleets in their several ports which, though entailing great hardships, remained the fundamental principle of British naval strategy down to the successful issue of the war. As First Lord of the Admiralty from 1801 to 1804, St Vincent made war against abuses of all kinds, especially peculation in the dockyards, which, however, led to stores being cut down to a dangerous level. From 1806 to 1807 he once more commanded the Channel Fleet. He attained the rank of Admiral of the Fleet at the age of eighty seven, two years before his death.

Staffetta

Name Origin: An express.

Stag

Stanley

Name Origin: The Right Hon Frederick Stanley, born 1841, was Secretary of state for War from 1878 to 1880, and for the Colonies from 1885 to 1886. In the latter year he was raised to the Peerage as Lord Stanley of Preston, and in 1888 he was appointed Governor General of Canada. In 1893 he succeeded his uncle as sixteenth Earl of Derby, and returned to England the same year.

Star

Name Origin: starling

Starfish

Statni

Name Origin: Stately.

Stchooka

Name Origin: Pike (fish).

Stefan cel Mare

Name Origin: Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldiovia. He reigned from 1457 to 1504, defeated the Turks at Rahova and Rasboieni, and the Poles at Suceava.

Stein

Name Origin: Heinrich F. K., Baron von Stein, born 1757, died 1831, celebrated Prussian statesman. He reformed the fianances, and begun the reorganisation of the whole State administration, with the purpose of rendering Prussia strong enough to renew the struggle against French oppression, but was dismissed from office at Napoleon’s demand in 1808. Stein took refuge first in Austria and then at the Court of Alexander I of Russia, where he continued to labour for the deliverance of Germany. When that day arrived, Stein returned into the service of his king, retiring after the Congress of Vienna, at which he had represented his country.

Steregushchi

Name Origin: Watcher, guard. The ship name commemorates a destroyer sunk in action off Port Arthur in 1904 during the war with Japan.

Sterlyad

Name Origin: Sturgeon.

Sterope

Name Origin: Steropes, one of the Cyclopes, a race of giants, sons of Coelus and Terra, whose chief was Polyphemus. According to Homer’s Odyssey they inhabitated the western portion of the island of Trinacria (Sicily).

Stier

Name Origin: Bull.

Stjerna

Name Origin: Star.

Stockholm

Name Origin: The capital of Sweden. King Knut Ericson founded it in 1155.

Store Belt

Name Origin: Great Belt, straits between the islands of Zealand and Funen.

Storen

Name Origin: Sturgeon.

Storm

Name Origin: Gale, storm.

Storojevoi

Name Origin: Guarding.

Strale

Name Origin: Arrow, dart.

Strashni

Name Origin: Terrible. The ship name commemorates a destroyer sunk in action off Port Arthur in 1904 during the war with Japan.

Streiter

Name Origin: Fighter

Stremitelni

Name Origin: Violent.

Strogi

Name Origin: Stern- severe.

Stroini

Name Origin: Handsome.

Sturgeon

Stuttgart

Name Origin: Capital of the kingdom of Wurttemberg.

Stylet

Name Origin: - Stiletto, small dagger.

Name Origin: Constellation

Sudzuya

Name Origin: The name of a river in Sakhalien, close to Korsakoof, where the Russian cruiser Novik was driven ashore at the close of the war, august 1904. she was ultimately refloated, and renamed after the river in question.

Success

Suffolk

Name Origin: Maritime county of England on the North Sea.

Suffren

Name Origin: -Pierre A. de Suffren de Saint Tropez, commonly called “le bailli de Suffren,” as he was a bailiff of the Order of the knights of St. John in Malta; born 1726, died 1788. He was present at two naval engagements before attaining his twentieth year, and entered the Order of St. John in 1749. In 1750,he took part in the attack on Port Mahon, and in 1759 in the fight off Lagos. His promotion was slow, and he only attained the rank of Chef d’Escadres in 1779. When the war with England broke out Suffren was sent in command of a squadron of 5 line of battle ships and 2 frigates to India. On his way out he met and fought an English squadron in the Bay of Praya. Arrived off Madras, February 14^th 1782,he found Admiral Hughes with 9 British ships there; and on the 17^th having been overtaken by the enemy, a fierce though undecided action ensued, the first of a series of five battles fought between these two commanders, and in which Suffren, with a numerically weaker force, held his own with courage and ability. His campaign in Indian waters, during which he bombarded and took Trincomalee, and his assistance of Haider Ali and Tipoo Saib caused the English heavy losses. On the news of the preliminaries of peace having been settled in 1783, Suffren returned to France, where he was received with the highest honours, and created an additional Vice Admiral (in the naval organisation of that time only three were allowed. In 1787, war being imminent, he selected to command the first equipping at Brest, but before the fleet was ready Suffren had died suddenly. Some said he had fallen in a duel with a nobleman of the court, two of whose relations, officers in the Navy, had been imprisoned for a breach of discipline, and for whom Suffren had refused to intercede. The more generally accepted version now is that death was due to an accidental overdose of medicine, when suffering from gout.

Suma

Name Origin: A noted watering place near Kobe, on the shore of the Inland Sea in Settsu province.

Sumatra

Name Origin: The second largest of the East India Islands. The Dutch captured it in 1620 from the Portuguese, who had discovered it in 1508.

Sumbawa

Name Origin: An island in the Sunda Archipelago, between Lombok and Flores.

Sumida

Name Origin: The Thames of Japan. It flows through Tokyo, and in its lower reaches is a great highway of commerce, while its upper waters are much frequented in spring by holidaymakers to view the blossoming cherry trees that line its banks.

Sunfish

Superb

Name Origin: Commemorates the capture of the French line-of-battle ship Superbe by the Kent on July 29th 1710. She was added to the Royal Navy as Superb.

Surcouf

Name Origin: - Robert Surcouf, celebrated privateer; born 1773, died 1827. He entered the Merchant Service at the age of thirteen, and for a short time served also as Mate in the Royal Navy, but preferring a more adventurous life, he took to privateering. During twelve years he made many daring and successful cruises, in which he fought a number of brilliant actions, the most remarkable of which was in 1800, when in command of the privateer La Confiance, he attacked and captured the Kent, an East Indiaman with a complement of 400 men, and mounti9ng 38 guns, and in every respect greatly superior to the Confiance. Bonaparte during his consulship offered Surcoufa high rank in the Navy, with the command of two frigates, and the order of the legion of honour. He accepted the latter, but declined the former. During the whole of the Franco-English wars he constantly equipped and sent out privateering expeditions, and after the fall of Napoleon continued to occupy him with maritime commerce, possessing a fleet of 19 merchant ships.

Surly

Surprise

Name Origin: It was in the Surprise, coal-brig, that Charles II escaped to France in 1651; she was kept in the royal service and her name afterwards changed to Royal Escape.

Surprise

Sutlej

Name Origin: An Indian river, tributary to the Indus which it joins at Mithankot, south of Multan. It was on the banks of the Sutlej that two desperate battles were fought during the Sikh War in 1846. (1) The Battle of Aliwal, on January 28th, when Sir Harry Smith with 12,000 men and 32 guns defeated the Sikhs, 19,000 strong with 68 guns, inflicting a loss of 6000 killed and drowned. (2) Battle of Sobraon, on February 10th, when Sir Hugh (later Viscount) Gough with 35,000 men attacked the Sikh army strongly entrenched on the banks of the Sutlej, dislodged them and drove them with heavy loss back across the river. The British lost 2300 killed and wounded.

Suwo

Name Origin: the name of a province in the south of Nihon, the main island. It has been given to the refloated Russian battleship Pobieda that was one of the ships scuttled at Port Arthur in December 1904.

Svaerdfisken

Name Origin: Sword fish.

Svea

Name Origin: Sweden.

Svensksund

Name Origin: (or Rotchensalm)- A bay in the southeast of the Gulf of Finland. Here in 1789 the Swedish fleet was defeated by the Russian, and in 1790 brilliantly avenged itself by almost annihilating the Russians.

Sviryepi

Name Origin: furious.

Swale

Name Origin: A Yorkshire river, which, together with the Ure, forms the Ouse near Boroughbridge.

Swift

Swiftsure

Name Origin: One of the compound Elizabethan ship names, originally Swiftsuer, i.e. swift pursuer.

Swordfish

Sylvia

Syren

Name Origin: According to Homer the Syrens were lovely sea-maidens inhabiting a rocky island near Scylla, whither they attracted passing mariners by their enchanting voices, thus luring them to destruction.

Syros

Name Origin: Syra, an island in the Greek archipelago, one of the Cyclades.

Szamos

Name Origin: A river Hungary, tributary of the Theiss.

Szigetfar

Name Origin: (or Sziget)-Town and castle in Hungary, famous for its gallant defence under Zrinyi against the Turks in 1566.