List of U.S. military vessels named after women
Encyclopedia
Many vessels named after women have seen military service, often serving with distinction. Most of these were named in civilian service and then subsequently commissioned
into the United States Navy
.
Few ships have been named
after women by the military. Ships often are named after people who served in the Navy or who served in the government. Women have only recently been in such prominent positions, and therefore few have been so honored by the Navy.
See also, List of ships of the United States Navy.
was commissioned in 1776 and was the first American armed ship named for a woman. She was a row galley, a small wooden river gunboat, built in 1776 by New York
State to defend Hudson River
, named in honor of Martha Washington
. She remained active, under General Washington
's command, through June 1777.
The sidewheel steamer Harriet Lane
was launched in 1857. She was the first armed ship in service with the U.S. Navy to be named for a woman. Originally a Revenue Cutter, she was named for Harriet Lane
, niece of President James Buchanan
, who served as Buchanan's White House
hostess. The ship was transferred to the Navy in 1858 and was later returned to Revenue Cutter Service. She was transferred again to Navy when the American Civil War
began, 1861 and was captured by Confederates
at Galveston, Texas
Jan 1863. She was not returned to government service after end of war.
The sternwheel river steamer Bloomer
was launched in 1856. Apparently this name was retained from a former name; she was named for feminist Amelia Bloomer
. Bloomer was captured from Confederates
in 1862 and served in the U.S. Navy from 1863–65.
The harbor tug Sacagawea (YT-241), 1942, was the first instance of a Maritime Commission's assignment of woman's name to naval vessel. She was named for Sacagawea
, a Shoshone
woman
. The name was assigned to a tug acquired by Maritime Commission for the Navy; it ended up being retained by Maritime Commission and was never commissioned in the Navy.
named for Marie Antoinette
., a harbor tug commissioned in 1942 and named for Pocahontas
.
Note that even though the name Shenandoah is an American Indian word meaning "Daughter of the Stars," the navy airship
and other ships are named for the river Shenandoah in Virginia
.
, World War II
, and some also during the interwar period
. Others served in the Stone Fleet
, or were prizes during the Age of Sail
. The names often came from a previous owner and all were commissioned in the Navy. Some vessels may have been named by the Navy, although it has not been determined which, if any, the Navy specifically named.
(incomplete)
Alphabetically
By designation
Ship commissioning
Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...
into the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
.
Few ships have been named
Ship naming and launching
The ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...
after women by the military. Ships often are named after people who served in the Navy or who served in the government. Women have only recently been in such prominent positions, and therefore few have been so honored by the Navy.
See also, List of ships of the United States Navy.
Early ships
The gunboat Lady WashingtonUSS Lady Washington (1776)
Lady Washington was a row galley in the Continental Navy, named in honor of Martha Washington.Lady Washington was built in New York City in the spring of 1776 at the behest of General George Washington after he transferred his forces from Boston to New York...
was commissioned in 1776 and was the first American armed ship named for a woman. She was a row galley, a small wooden river gunboat, built in 1776 by New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
State to defend Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
, named in honor of Martha Washington
Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington is considered to be the first First Lady of the United States...
. She remained active, under General Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
's command, through June 1777.
The sidewheel steamer Harriet Lane
USS Harriet Lane (1857)
Harriet Lane was a revenue cutter of the United States Revenue Cutter Service and, on the outbreak of the American Civil War, a ship of the United States Navy and later Confederate States Navy. She was named after the niece of senator and later United States President, James Buchanan...
was launched in 1857. She was the first armed ship in service with the U.S. Navy to be named for a woman. Originally a Revenue Cutter, she was named for Harriet Lane
Harriet Lane
Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston , niece of lifelong bachelor United States President James Buchanan, acted as First Lady of the United States from 1857 to 1861. She was one of the few women to hold the position of First Lady while not being married to the President.-Early life:Harriet Lane's family...
, niece of President James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
, who served as Buchanan's White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
hostess. The ship was transferred to the Navy in 1858 and was later returned to Revenue Cutter Service. She was transferred again to Navy when the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
began, 1861 and was captured by Confederates
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
at Galveston, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
Jan 1863. She was not returned to government service after end of war.
The sternwheel river steamer Bloomer
USS Bloomer (1856)
USS Bloomer was a stern-wheel steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat with orders to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.- An unofficial acquisition of a...
was launched in 1856. Apparently this name was retained from a former name; she was named for feminist Amelia Bloomer
Amelia Bloomer
Amelia Jenks Bloomer was an American women's rights and temperance advocate. Even though she did not create the women's clothing reform style known as bloomers, her name became associated with it because of her early and strong advocacy.-Early life:Bloomer came from a family of modest means and...
. Bloomer was captured from Confederates
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
in 1862 and served in the U.S. Navy from 1863–65.
The harbor tug Sacagawea (YT-241), 1942, was the first instance of a Maritime Commission's assignment of woman's name to naval vessel. She was named for Sacagawea
Sacagawea
Sacagawea ; was a Lemhi Shoshone woman, who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition, acting as an interpreter and guide, in their exploration of the Western United States...
, a Shoshone
Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
woman
Sacagawea
Sacagawea ; was a Lemhi Shoshone woman, who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition, acting as an interpreter and guide, in their exploration of the Western United States...
. The name was assigned to a tug acquired by Maritime Commission for the Navy; it ended up being retained by Maritime Commission and was never commissioned in the Navy.
Navy ships
, a frigate in the Continental NavyContinental Navy
The Continental Navy was the navy of the United States during the American Revolutionary War, and was formed in 1775. Through the efforts of the Continental Navy's patron, John Adams and vigorous Congressional support in the face of stiff opposition, the fleet cumulatively became relatively...
named for Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
., a harbor tug commissioned in 1942 and named for Pocahontas
Pocahontas
Pocahontas was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in Tidewater Virginia...
.
- Five transports commissioned in 1942:
- , named for Dorothea DixDorothea DixDorothea Lynde Dix was an American activist on behalf of the indigent insane who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums...
- , named for Elizabeth C. Stanton
- USS Florence Nightingale (AP-70)USS Florence Nightingale (AP-70)USS Florence Nightingale was an Elizabeth C. Stanton-class transport ship of the United States Navy. She was named for Florence Nightingale , the nursing pioneer, and is one of the few United States Navy ships named after a woman.Florence Nightingale was launched on 28 August 1940 by Moore...
, named for Florence NightingaleFlorence NightingaleFlorence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night... - , named for Mary LyonMary LyonMary Mason Lyon , surname pronounced , was a pioneer in women's education. She established the Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts, . Within two years, she raised $15,000 to build the Mount Holyoke School...
- , named for Susan B. AnthonySusan B. AnthonySusan Brownell Anthony was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as President...
(later designation of YTM-326), a harbor tug that served in CharlestonCharleston, South CarolinaCharleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
harbor from 1942 to 1945., a 1944 harbor tug named for a PotawatomiPotawatomiThe Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...
womanWatsekaWatseka or Watchekee was a Potawatomi Native American woman, born in Illinois, and named for the heroine of a Potawatomi legend. Her uncle was Tamin, the chief of the Kankakee Potawatomi Indians....
., 1945 a Gearing-classGearing class destroyerThe Gearing class was a group of 98 destroyers built for the US Navy during and shortly after World War II. The Gearing design was a minor modification of the immediately preceding Allen M. Sumner class...
destroyerDestroyerIn naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
named for Lenah S. HigbeeLenah HigbeeChief Nurse Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee, United States Navy , was a pioneering Navy nurse, who served as Superintendent of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps during World War I....
, Superintendent of Navy Nurse Corps 1911–1922, Higbee served in Fast Carrier Force. She was the first ship laid down, christened, and commissioned for a woman who had served in the U.S. Navy, and the first to see combat so named., 1996. Built and commissioned at Bath Iron WorksBath Iron WorksBath Iron Works is a major American shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, United States. Since its founding in 1884 , BIW has built private, commercial and military vessels, most of which have been ordered by the United States Navy...
in BathBath, MaineBath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 9,266. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County. Located on the Kennebec River, Bath is a port of entry with a good harbor. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its...
, MaineMaineMaine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, the Arleigh Burke-classArleigh Burke class destroyerThe Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyers is the United States Navy's first class of destroyer built around the Aegis combat system and the SPY-1D multi-function phased array radar. The class is named for Admiral Arleigh "31-Knot" Burke, the most famous American destroyer officer of...
guided missile destroyer is named for RDML Grace Murray HopperGrace HopperRear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy officer. A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and developed the first compiler for a computer programming language...
, a computer technologyComputer scienceComputer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
pioneer who led the Navy into the digital age. is explicitly named for both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor RooseveltEleanor RooseveltAnna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
was announced in 2000. She is the second of a new class of replenishment ships., an oceanographic survey ship, was launched in October 2000 and is still active . She was named for Commander Mary Sears. is a sister ship of Sacagawea and launched in 2008.
- , named for Dorothea Dix
Note that even though the name Shenandoah is an American Indian word meaning "Daughter of the Stars," the navy airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...
and other ships are named for the river Shenandoah in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
Other Navy ships with a woman's name
Many of these ships served in one or both of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and some also during the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
. Others served in the Stone Fleet
Stone Fleet
The Stone Fleet consisted of a fleet of aging ships purchased in New Bedford and other New England ports, loaded with stone, and sailed south during the American Civil War by the Union Navy for use as Blockships...
, or were prizes during the Age of Sail
Age of Sail
The Age of Sail was the period in which international trade and naval warfare were dominated by sailing ships, lasting from the 16th to the mid 19th century...
. The names often came from a previous owner and all were commissioned in the Navy. Some vessels may have been named by the Navy, although it has not been determined which, if any, the Navy specifically named.
(incomplete)
Alphabetically
- USS Edithia (SP-214)USS Edithia (YP-214)USS Edithia was a motor yacht in the United States Navy.Edithia was built by C. L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, New York, in 1909; purchased by the Navy in May 1917; and commissioned 23 August 1917, Ensign M. S. Pearson, USNRF, in command...
(later YP-214) - USS Sara Thompson (SP-3148)USS Sara Thompson (AO-8)USS Sara Thompson was a tanker in the United States Navy. She was purchased at the start of World War I by the U.S. Navy and served as a tanker supporting American troops in Europe. Post-war she operated in the Pacific Ocean, supporting Navy operations in the Guam, China, and the Philippines...
(later AO-8)
By designation
SP
- USS Edithia (SP-214)USS Edithia (YP-214)USS Edithia was a motor yacht in the United States Navy.Edithia was built by C. L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, New York, in 1909; purchased by the Navy in May 1917; and commissioned 23 August 1917, Ensign M. S. Pearson, USNRF, in command...
(later YP-214) - USS Sara Thompson (SP-3148)USS Sara Thompson (AO-8)USS Sara Thompson was a tanker in the United States Navy. She was purchased at the start of World War I by the U.S. Navy and served as a tanker supporting American troops in Europe. Post-war she operated in the Pacific Ocean, supporting Navy operations in the Guam, China, and the Philippines...
(later AO-8)