Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: eos!woody@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Wayne Wood)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Naval vessel naming conventions
Message-ID: <11115@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 4 Nov 89 04:11:40 GMT
References: <11070@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Calif.
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Approved: military@att.att.com



From: eos!woody@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Wayne Wood)

In article <11070@cbnews.ATT.COM> nelson_p@apollo.com writes:
>From: nelson_p@apollo.com
>  Could someone please explain to me the naming conventions
>  now used by the US Navy?  In WWII it was:
>
>  Destroyers           naval heroes
>  Cruisers             cities
>  Battleships          states
>  Aircraft Carriers    battles, famous ships (and bugs??? (Wasp, Hornet...
>  Submarines           sea animals
>  ...Perhaps someone can describe the conventions, if any, for other types 
>  that existed then (hospital ships, supply ships, minesweepers, etc)
>[mod.note:   Here's a few:
>	Ammunition Ships: Things that go boom (fun names like "Mauna Loa",
>	  "Pyro", "Nitro", "Vesuvius."  Who says the Navy doesn't have a
>	  sense of humor ?
>	Oilers and Gasoline tankers: Indian names (e.g., Maumee, Ogeechee)
>	Hospital Ships: Nice things (Samaritan, Comfort, Relief, Mercy)
>- Bill ]

to the best of my knowledge the capital ships [battleships & cruisers]
were named after states and capital cities respectively.  gator navy,
[lst's, lpd's, lka's] are named after counties.  troop transports
are named after *soldiers*.  that was then...

>
>  The cruiser that was accidentally bombed in the Indian Ocean was
>  the Reeves, which sounds like a person's name.  But it was a cruiser,
>  right?  Is there a city called Reeves, somewhere?  And I seem to 
>  recall that we're also naming submarines after places sometimes, too.
>

the capital ship is defined as the navy's first [read that 'most important']
line of defense.  that's why we are starting to see *submarines* with state
names.  cruisers are named [usually] after secondary cities in various
states though state capitols are still represented.  destroyers and FF's
are named after famous sailors or other notables in naval lore.  gator
navy still gets counties and this leads to weird things... for instance,
lpd-9 is the denver, i believe lpd-10 is the juneau... is this for the
county or the city???

in wwII the battleship was the capital ship, hence the state name... now i
guess the submarine has this distinction and is named accordingly... it
would appear that the role of the cruiser is also being shifted to the
submarine... maybe thats why the 688's are the Los Angeles class.

just my $0.02 worth...

[former Sgt.] w.c. wood [formerly usmc]


/***   woody   ****************************************************************
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