In 1819, Congress signed an act which placed the responsibility of ship naming with the Secretary of the Navy. More streamlined than ship naming is today, understanding how each type of ship was named can allow us to quickly identify what type of ship it is.Įarly ships of the US Navy had a variety of names, most paying homage to naval heroes (Raleigh), ideals of the young United States (Independence), or American cities (Boston). These conventions laid out guidelines for the “type” of names which could be bestowed upon a certain type of vessel. The Secretary of the Navy, first Frank Knox, and then James Forrestal, used conventions set out by laws and tradition. Naming a ship was not a matter of whimsy. This solemn responsibility rested then, as it does now, with the Secretary of the Navy. Naming a ship might be considered by some a trivial matter, especially during a time of war, but “selecting names for US Navy battle force ships is a particularly solemn and important responsibility.” By the end of World War II, the US Navy had grown from a fleet of roughly 700 commissioned ships to more than 6,000, each one bearing a unique name.
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