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A request for the name of a sea bird, a name to be used for a boat,
came to me at my desk in the museum one day. My memory was quickly
exhausted with sea gull, sea swallow, and albatross. But I keep within
reach the handy guide, _Birds of the Ocean_, by W. B. Alexander. In
the index I found twenty pages of names, two columns to a page. They
started with _aalge, Uria_, and went on down through the alphabet to
_yelkouan, Puffinus_, and to _zimmermanni, Sterna_.
EUPHONY NEEDED A name should be short, pleasant-sounding, and easy
to remember and to say, so obviously such words as _Macronectes_,
_Brachyramphus_, _Aptenodytes_, and _Coprotheres_ are ruled out among
the scientific names. But further, when choosing a name for a boat
from among those of water birds, one should consider the kind of a
boat. There should be some appropriateness; some points of resemblance
between the boat and the bird, or between the boat owner and the bird.
Albatross seems right for a seagoing sailing ship, sailing to southern
oceans; tern (or sea swallow) appropriate for light, dainty coastal
sailing craft; puffin or auk or murre for power craft, for these birds
spend most of their time stolidly on the water and when they fly have a
direct buzzing flight. Loon and dabchick would do well for fresh-water
boats. But one objection to both them and the various auks for a name
is that these birds spend much time swimming underwater. They might
better give their names to submarines. The big, stocky sea ducks,
called scoters and eiders might suit some stout craft that ply to
arctic waters.
SCIENTIFIC NAMES AVAILABLE I reviewed the host of other names.
Scientific names need not be ignored either. What is nicer than
_Gygis_, the name of the white, fairy, or love tern of the South Seas
for a small summer sail boat? Then going farther afield into austral
waters for far traveling craft there's _Diomedea_, the name of the
albatross, and _Daption_, the medium-sized petrel that also is called
pintado for the same reason a white-splashed horse is called a pinto,
and _Prion_, the tiny whalebirds of the antarctic whose blue-gray back
is near the ideal ocean-camouflage color. _Larus_, a good honest name
without frills, belonging to the gulls that haunt our harbors, coasts,
and lakes, would do for a plain, everyday sort of boat. Kittiwake is
another gull that spends more time at sea. Gannets are boldly black and
white, strong-flying birds of the North Atlantic, and one could use
that, or its scientific equivalent, _Moris_, for a boat.
Penguin and pelican I'm doubtful about; I can't imagine a boat for
either. Skua or jaeger would, of course, be a lovely symbol for a
pirate vessel, as would frigate bird; both are birds that practice
the stand-and-deliver method of getting food from weaker fisherfolk.
The petrels called shearwaters are among the hardiest seagoing birds,
but the name has little association for most people beyond wondering
if they feed around breakwaters. Petrel itself isn't a bad name,
though one might think of the storm petrels, which are also called
Mother Carey's chickens, and have been considered the souls of drowned
sailors, though their name perhaps refers to Peter, and his attempt to
walk on the water, as these birds are continually trying to do.
Phalaropes are snipes of sorts that have taken up a periodic seagoing
habit, and their name might often be appropriate. Even their habit of
spinning quickly about as they sit on the water might still agree. A
Chicago man named his Chris-Craft _Sandpiper_, after, as he said, the
bird that goes hopping along the beach before the waves.
_Sula_ is a good sort of a word, and the name of birds that are strong,
swift fliers of the tropics. But in English they're usually called
booby, which is an English word meaning simpleton (which name the birds
got from stupidly perching on ships). _Alle_ for the little auk or
dovekie would do for a tiny boat in northern waters, and I knew of one
boat called the _Alca_, after the razor-billed auk, while _Cepphus_,
the name of the black guillemots, is equally good, as is both _Lunda_
and its equivalent puffin.
Some names have a stark simplicity that would attract few, like shag,
used for the cormorant, and muttonbird for a petrel. The cahow people
might shy from because for many years we were not sure whether this
West Indian petrel was extinct or not.
Myself, there are two names I rather like and I've been saving for the
last: for a small sailboat I'd say the _Wideawake_, as the sooty tern
is called in its tropical home, and the other, for a larger seagoing
boat, is the _Mollymawk_, a sailor's name for the albatross.