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

Name Origin: Vice Admiral Don Jacobo MacMahon, born 1820, died 1887.  The gunboat, which bears this name, was launched at Ferrol during Admiral MacMahon’s tenure of office as Superintendent of the dockyard at the place.

Madras

Magallanes

Name Origin: Fernando de Magallanes or Magelhaens, commonly called Magellan; born 1470 in Portugal, died 1521.  He distinguished himself in the Portuguese service by the capture of Malacca, but being dissatisfied with this service entered that of Spain in 1517.  In the autumn of 1519, in command of a squadron of five ships, he sailed in search of a western passage to the Moluccas, reached the mouth of La Plata early in 1520, and coasting southward discovered and sailed through the straits that bear his name.  In the Pacific he discovered the Ladrone Islands and the Philippine Archipelago.  He fell in a fight with the natives off the island of Matan in 1521.  Only one of his five ships completed the circumnavigation of the globe, and under the command of Sebastian el Cano, returned safely to Spain in 1522.

Magenta

Name Origin: Town in Northern Italy where on June 14^th 1859, the French and Sardinians, under Napoleon III, and MacMahon defeated the Austrians under Gyulay.  MacMahon was created Duke of Magenta.

Maipu

Makigumo

Name Origin: An island off the west coast of Gilolo in the Moluccas.

Name Origin: Mackerel.

Makrelen

Name Origin: Mackerel.

Mameluck

Name Origin: Mameluke, the plural of the Arabic word Memalik (slave).  The Mamelukes were a large force of trained warriors formed out of Circassian slaves by the Sultan of Egypt in the thirteenth century.  They soon became all-powerful, and ruled Egypt for 300 years.  They fought stubbornly against Napoleon’s army of invasion, and were only finally suppressed by the Khedive Mehemet Ali.

Manadzuru

Manche

Name Origin: “sleeve,” the French name for the English Channel.

Name Origin: A Manchurian, an inhabitant of Manchuria, the northeastern portion of China, a great part of which was ceded to Rusiia in 1860.

Name Origin: A river in the Portuguese territory of Goa in India.

Mangini

Name Origin: A naval engineer who was killed by an accident onboard the torpedo boat Sarrazin during her steam trials in January 1894.

Manshu

Maori

Name Origin: The adjutant bird

Maranhao

Name Origin: One of the twenty United States; its capital is Sao Luiz de Maranhao.

Name Origin: A river in the Portuguese territory of Goa in India.

Name Origin: The younger of that name Duke of Palliano; born 1535, died 1584.  He commanded the Potential galleys, under Don John of Austria, at the battle of Lepanto in 1571, after which great victory he was accorded a “triumph” in Rome, being received by the Pope in the Church of Ara Coeli.  Philip II of Spain made him Viceroy of Sicily.

Marceau

Name Origin: General Francois Servein Desgraviers Marceau, born 1769, died 1796, one of the Generals of the First Republic.  On the outbreak of the Revolution he became Inspector of the National guards.  He defended Verdun in 1792, fought in the Vendee, and succeeded General Kleber in command of the army of the West, winning the battle of Le Mans in 1794.  He led the right wing of General Jourdan’s army in the battles of Fleurus and Roer, occupied Coblence and commanded in the sieges of Ehrenbreitstein, Mayence, and Mannheim in 1796.  He fell at the battle of Altenkirchen.

Name Origin: Celebrated traveller, son of Nicolo, and nephew of Maffeo Polo, two Venetian merchants who, in the thirteenth century, travelled to Bokhara, and visited the great Khan of Tartary, Kublai, ruler of the Chinese Empire.  On there second expedition to Tartary Marco accompanied them, and gaining the favour of the Khan, spent over twenty years in his service.  During this time he explored the greater part of Central and Southern Asia and many of the adjacent islands.  On his return to Venice a rich and prosperous man, he was received with much honour and greater curiosity.  In 1298 he took part in the Venetian campaign against Genoa, and was made prisoner at the battle of Curzola.  During his capacity he dictated the history of his travels to a fellow prisoner.  The last years of his life were spent in Venice, where he died in 1323.

Name Origin: A River in Transylvania, tributary of the Theiss.

Name Origin: Don Juan Jose Navarro, Marquis de la Victoria; born 1687, died 1772.  He served in the Navy fewer than five kings, and rose to be Captain General and director of the Navy.  For his services in the action with the English under Admiral Matthews off Toulon in 1744, where he commanded the Spanish squadron, Philip V created him Marquis de la Victoria.

Name Origin: Don Roca de Togores, Marquis de Molins, born 1812, died 1889, a scientist and politician.  He was several times Minister of Marine and Ambassador in London, Paris, etc.

Name Origin: A village near the Incomati River in East Africa, when the Portuguese troops fought Gungunhana’s warriors during the war of 1895.

Mars

The ship name commemorates the capture of the French Mars, 64, by the Nottingham on October 11^th 1746.  In the year 1781 three Dutch ships called Mars were captured successively; another Dutch Mars had been captured in 1665, but not added to the Royal Navy.

Marseillaise

Name Origin: The name of the famous Revolutionary song, which is now the National Anthem of the French Republic.  The ship name dates from 1900.

Marshal Deodoro

Name Origin: The first President of the newly established Republic.

Marshal Floriano

Name Origin: The second President of the Republic.

Marstrand

Name Origin: A Swedish fortress on the island of Gottenburg long captured to be impregnable.  The Danes, however, twice captured it, once in 1676, and again in 1716. When, thanks to Admiral Tordenskjold’s great reputation, the Swedish commandant surrendered it to him almost without resistance.

Name Origin: Martin Alonzo Pinzon was a wealthy merchant and experienced navigator of the Port of Palos, who fitted out and commanded one of the three caravels that sailed under the command of Columbus to the discovery of a new world in 1492. Jealousy of Columbus induced Pinzon to separate from him on the return voyage, but Columbus reached Spain with the good news of his success sooner than Pinzon, who died soon after he too returned.

Name Origin: Born 1597, died 1653.  He was onboard his father’s, a merchant skipper’s ship, as a boy for eleven, when it was captured by an English privateer.  His father was killed, and he was obliged to serve the enemy for two years as a Cabin boy.  He entered the Dutch Navy in 1617, and commanded a frigate in 1624.  He became Lieutenant Admiral in 1637.  In February 1639 he defeated a greatly superior Spanish fleet under Admiral Oquendo off Gravelines.  On May 19^th 1652 he fought the British under Blake off Dover, and again on November 30^th, when he gained a decided victory; after which he sailed up the Channel with a broom at his masthead in token of derision.  In 1663 he successfully fought the British under Monk and Dean in the battles off Portland, February 18^th-20^th, and off Solebay, June 2^nd-3^rd.  In the battle off the Texel, July 29^th-31^st, Tromp fell, and the Dutch were defeated.

Name Origin: A river in Southwest Africa, in the Portuguese territory of Cabinda, between the Congo State and French Congoland.

Massena

Name Origin: Andre Massena (or Manasses), Duc de Rivoli, Prince d’Essling, born 1758, died 1817, one of Napoleon’s celebrated Marshals.  He entered the Army at the outbreak of the French Revolution, and rose rapidly to be a General of Division.  He distinguished himself in the three Italian campaigns, and especially at the battle of Rivoli, January 14^th and 15^th 1797.  In 1799 he defeated the Austrians and Russians at Zurich.  After the battle of Merengo 1800, he was made Commander in chief of the army of Italy, and took Naples and Gaeta in 1806.  He commanded the right wing off Napoleon’s army in the battle of Eylau, and the Fourth Army corps at the battle of Essling, May 21^st and 22^nd 1809.  In 1810 and 1811 he commanded against Wellington in the Peninsula (Torres Vedras), and fell into disfavour for his want of success in this campaign.  In 1814 he commanded the troops at Marseilles, and went over to the Bourbons.

Massue

Name Origin: Club (weapon).

Name Origin: The chief actor in a bullfight, whose business it is to kill the bull.

Name Origin: The chief residence of the late Sultan of Lombok, which was taken in 1894 by the naval and military forces after a stubborn resistance.

Matsukaze

Matsushima

Maya

May Frer

Mayo

Meduse

Name Origin: Medusa, in Greek mythology the mortal sister of the two immortal Gorgons, female monsters who dwelt at the westernmost end of the world.  They had live serpents instead of hair on their heads, and whoever looked upon them was turned into stone.  Medusa was transformed into their likeness by the wrath of Artemis (Diana).  She was slain by Perseus, who to avoid her deadly gaze, watched her reflection in his shield.  Even after death her head retained its petrifying power, and was carried by Pallas (Minerva) in her aegis, mantle of war.

Mercury

Merlin

Mermaid

Name Origin: The Latin name for the river Merwede.

Name Origin: Messenger.

Messidor

Name Origin: - “Month of harvest.”  The tenth month of the New Calendar instituted by the First French Republic on September 22^nd 1792, and which continued in use until Napoleon reintroduced the Gregorian Calendar on January 1^st 1806.

Meurthe

Name Origin: - Tributary of the river Moselle.

Name Origin: Captain of a fire ship, which destroyed the British ship Royal Oak during De Ruyter’s attack in the Medway June 12^th 1667.

Name Origin: Captain of the 5^th Regiment of the Line, killed during the war with turkey at the attack on Grivitza, august 30^th 1877.

Name Origin: Naval officer, who on April 22^nd 1709, during an action in which his captain fell, succeeded to the command of the frigate d’Oranje Gala, best off the attack of four Dunkirk privateers, and recaptured four merchant vessels.

Mikadzuki

Mikasa

Minadzuki

Minas Geraes

Name Origin: One of the twenty United States, famous for its mines; Ouro Petro is its capital.

Name Origin: Miner.

Minerva

Name Origin: Roman goddess of wisdom and industry.  The Romans later identified her with the Greek Pallas Athene.

Name Origin: Kosman Minin was a butcher of Nijni Novgorod who incited the citizens to collect arms and money to expel the Poles from Moscow, where their Prince Ladislaus had been proclaimed Tsar by a fraction of the Russian nobility during the troubles succeeding the extinction of the royal House of Rurik.  He became treasurer of the patriotic party, and assisted Prince Pojarski in delivering Russia from the Polish invaders in 1612.

Ministro Zenteno

Name Origin: Born at Santiago in 1775, he emigrated to Mendoza and in 1813 acted as Secretary to General San Martin, then organising the allied revolted armies.  He later became Minister of War and Marine in the new Republic, displaying great organising powers.  In the campaign of 1817-8 he fought at Maipo and Concha-Rayada.  His signature was attached to the document, which proclaimed the Independence of Chile.  He also designed the national flag (ensign).

Minotaur

Name Origin: In Greek mythology a semi-human monster with the head of a bull, kept by King Minos of Crete in a labyrinth.  The Athenian youths and maidens regularly sent as the Minotaur, the King’s daughter, devoured a tribute to Minos slew him.  This myth arose probably from the worship of Baal-Moloch by the Phoencian settlers of Crete.

Minto

Mirabeau

Name Origin: - Honore Gabriel Victor Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau, born 1749, died 1791, was the son of the highly gifted political economist, Marquis de Mirabeau, and the most prominent figure in the early stages of the French Revolution.  After a very stormy and dissolute youth, he found himself on the verge of ruin, and began to earn his living by his pen.  His able pamphlets on the political and social abuses of his time made his name widely known.  In 1798 he represented the town of Aix in the Assembly of notables, and soon became the acknowledged leader and spokesman of the popular party.  He fought against the old and rotten system of despotic government, and for a constitutional monarchy in its place.  An indefatigable writer, a brilliant orator, and a fearless debater, he attempted the impossible task of restraining the popular movement within reasonable limits, and reconciling the monarchy with the new orders of things.  Distrusted by the Sovereign from whom he accepted pecuniary aid, suspected by many of his colleagues, whom rumours of the transaction had reached, he was still in the zenith of his power and popularity when death overtook him.

Name Origin: The name of a picturesque castle on the sea near Triest, the residence of the late Emperor Maximilian of Mexico whilst serving in the American Navy as archduke Ferdiand Max.  The name is derived from an old convent on the island of Majorca.

Name Origin: Mircea, Prince of Mantania, reigned from 1386 to 1418.  He fought the Turks victoriously, and greatly enlarged his territory, so that he adopted the title of Lord of both banks of the Danube to the black Sea, Prince of the Dobrudja, of Silistria, and of lands up to Adrianople.

Name Origin: Cape on the northern extremity of the Gulf of Naples; it was said to derive its name from Misenus, the trumpeter of Aeneas, who was drowned off it.

Mishima

Misiones

Missoes

Name Origin: Name of a territory, which ha long been the object of rival claims by Brazil and the Argentine Republic, and which was awarded to Brazil by President Cleveland, U.S.A., on February 5^th 1895, acting as arbitrator.

Mistral

Name Origin: - The north wind of the Gulf of Lyons.

Mitraille

Name Origin: - Grapeshot.

Mogami

Mohawk

Name Origin: Brave.

Monemvasia

Name Origin: Inhabitant of Mongolia.

Monmouth

Montcalm

Name Origin: - Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm de Saint Veran; born 1712, died 1759.  Entering the Army, he distinguished himself in the War of the Austrian Succession and in 1756 was sent to Canada as Commander in Chief of the French forces.  In spite of the difficulties a badly organised Colonial Government involved him in, he succeeded in delaying the British advance for nearly four years.  He captured and destroyed Forts Chuaguen (Oswego) and William Henry, and repulsed the British attack on Carillon.  Unsupported from home by either men or stores, he vainly attempted to defend Quebec against General Wolfe.  He was mortally wounded in the battle of the Plains of Abraham, which decided the fate of the city and in which his victorious opponent also fell.

Montcalm

Name Origin: Parish in the province of Pavia.  Here on June 9^th 1800, the French under General Lannes defeated the Austrians, for which victory Napoleon created him Duke of Montebello; and here on March 20^th 1859, the allied French and Sardinians defeated the Austrians.

Morse

Name Origin: - Walrus.

Mortier

Name Origin: - Mortar.

Name Origin: The Latin name of the river Meuse or Maas.

Name Origin: Inhabitant of Moscow.

Mosquito

Name Origin: Mighty.

Mouette

Name Origin: - Gull.

Mousquet

Name Origin: - Musket.

Mousquetaire

Name Origin: - Musketeer.

Mousqueton

Name Origin: - Musketoon, cavalry musket, being lighter and shorter than the infantry musket.

Name Origin: Seagull

Moy