How To Name A Ship

 By Erik Tierney

Many ship names have been used scores of times. The Revolutionary British Dreadnought of 1906, for example, was the eighth ship in English naval history to bear that name, and others have used it since. There has never been any universal system for naming ships. While the British preferred frightening names like the Invincible, Devastation, Shark, and Hyena, for their warships, the Japanese have always liked romantic names such as the Shiranuhi ("Phosphorescent Foam") and the Kasumi ("Mist of Flowers"). No rigid logic seems ever to have been at work here, although the U.S. Navy did institute a comprehensive system during World War II, prescribing that the following classes of ships be named in the following manner (don't forget, however, that sailors on the strictest naval ships often called them by entirely different names - the Missouri for example, was sometimes called the
Misery, the Brooklyn and the Teakettle; while the Salt Lake City was often called the Swayback Marie!)

• Aircraft Carriers - After battles, people associated with aviation, and great American ships.

• Ammunition ships - For volcanoes; also with names suggesting fire and explosives.

• Amphibious force flagships - After U.S. mountains.

• Battleships - For states of the Union.

• Cargo Ships - For astronomical bodies or U.S. Counties.

• Cruisers - For U.S. cities, territories, and capitals of U.S. territories.

• Destroyers - After dead persons associated with the Navy and Marines.

• Destroyer escorts - In honor of "personnel of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard killed by enemy action in World War II.

• Harbor tugs - After trees, or Indian chiefs and "other noted Indians."

• Hospital ships - Names with 'synonyms for kindness" or "other logical and euphonious words."

• Landing ships - For places of historical interest.

• Minelayers - After former navy monitors or with "logical and euphonious words."

• Minesweepers " Names of birds or with "logical and euphonious words."

• Net Tenders " After trees, or Indian chiefs and "other noted Indians."

• Ocean tugs - For Indian tribes.

• Provision storeships - For astronomical bodies.

• Salvage ships - With "names descriptive of their functions."

• Seaplane tenders - With the names of U.S. straits, bays, and inlets.

• Submarines - After fish and other sealife.

• Submarine tenders " With the names of pioneers in submarine development and characters in mythology.

• Tankers " With Indian names of rivers.

• Transports for carrying wounded - In honor of dead Navy surgeon generals.

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