A few ship names have floated by my inquiring mind on vacation here in the Maritimes. I learned from a model-ship builder of Dutch descent about a trio of British ships in the early nineteenth century that carried classical names (the Irene, the Hero, and Egeria) and were involved in action that resulted in either destruction near Holland or capture by the Dutch. On Saturday 11 July 2015 I viewed a model, the result of over four thousand hours of work, of Irene, at a display of model ships in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. Irene is the Greek word for "peace." Hero was the mythological lover of Leander; Leander swam the Hellespont to visit Hero, but drowned one night. In grief Hero also drowned herself. Egeria was the name of the wife of the second king of Rome, Romulus' successor, Numa Pompilius. She eventually became a fountain/spring and is sometimes considered a Roman equivalent of a Greek Muse.
On 18-19 July 2015 not a model but a full-scale reproduction of the tall ship Hermione, a French ship that brought the Marquis de Lafayette to America in 1780, is scheduled to tie up in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Hermione has already visited a few ports in North America, having set sail from France on 18 April 2015. Hermione in Greek mythology was the daughter of the beautiful Helen of Troy and her husband, Menelaus of Sparta. This name appears to be a feminine form of Hermes, the messenger god.
A quick search around the internet turns up all kinds of mythological ship names. One wonders who chose the names and why they did. Even without knowing the answers, how delightful to keep ancient names afloat through the centuries!
P.S. The Marquis de Lafayette's motto was the Latin Cur non? (Why not?)
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