Ajax

How old and honorable in British naval annals is the name Ajax* and how far back into history march those annals, was called to mind last week when sailors of the present light cruiser Ajax, co-heroine of the Graf Spec fight, hung a new name under their ship's battle-honor plaque--THE PLATE. Above this sign, which refers to the River Plate (La Plata) between Uruguay and Argentina, appear legends signalizing exploits of five of the eight Ajax ships that have served Great Britain down the history of her long maritime mastery.

Ajax No. 1, a 74-gun ship of the line of 1,619 tons built at Plymouth in 1767, fought Admiral de Langara under British Admiral Rodney off Cape St. Vincent, Spain, when the British destroyed the Spanish Fleet in 1780. In 1782 that Ajax fought in the Battle of the Saints, in the West Indies, under Rodney again, against France's Admiral de Grasse, who was taken prisoner. Ajax No. 2, an 80-gun line-of-battle ship built at Rotherhithe in 1798, took part in the British investiture of Alexandria in 1801, but did little sea-fighting. In 1807 she burned with 252 deaths off the Dardanelles, after doing her part at Trafalgar (1805) under Admiral Nelson. Ajax No. 3, a 74-gunner, backed up the Duke of Wellington's siege of San Sebastian in 1813. Ajax No. 5 (Nos. 4 & 6 played no part in history) was a wooden, 60-gun, steam ship of the line. She took part in the bombardment of Bomarsund Fortress in the Aland Islands (then Russian, now Finnish) in 1854 ("Crimean" War). Smallpox killed more British sailors there than did Russian cannon, so the British left. Ajax No. 7 was a sister of the Iron Duke. She served at Jutland, and was scrapped under the Washington Treaty of 1922.

Motto of the Ajax: Nee quisquam nisi Ajax, which in the U. S. Navy would be translated, "We can't do nothing till Ajax comes."

* Taken, in scholarly fashion, from the Greek classical hero Ajax, son of Telamon, who fought with high-helmed valor before Troy.

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