Like the old USS CANOPUS (AKA USS can opener)
I guess the ship-christeners were betting against the odds of anyone in a waterfront dive bar being literate enough to insult the crew of the USS Sappho.
My ship doesn’t have a name. You may call her ‘V’</alan moore>
Oh, and ralph124c, Canopus is one of the navigational stars. But so is Zubenelgenubi 
He wouldn’t even have had to tell them: it would have been written on his cap band. Imagine spending your whole career with Candytuft emblazoned across your forehead.
In the “Master & Commander” books, by Patrick O’Brien, sailors are referred to by their ship’s names. For example, crewmembers of HMS Sophie are called “Sophies”.
Which is great if you are a “Vampire”. Not so much if you are on HMS Atholl .
True, although I remember that during WW2 capbands were eliminated on at least some warships (such as HMS Warspite) to avoid revealing too much info to potential spies ashore.
Oh, yes, so they were. A popular policy among the crew of the Honeysuckle, I dare say.
Personally, I feel sorry for the crew of the HMS Pickle.
Would that be the crew of HMS Pickle: The quick sailing ship that brought news of the battle of Trafalgar and the sad death of the Admiral Lord Nelson back to the UK?
The RN has had some great names, Victory, Indefatigable, Iron Duke ect…
As for ships with strange names:
Google HMS Kelly sometime… Wow (She went down with the guns still firing)
HMS Bulldog was the Ship that captured the first (Navy) Enigma Machine in WW2.
HMS Sheffield seved in the Falklands campaign, and was sadly lost.
There are many more… In the present ‘Fleet’ we have the somewhat strange HMS Quorn.
At present I am Serving on RFA Wave Knight, which is quite a cool name IMO.
Small quibble with the word now. The “Monitor” type name seems to have been adopted almost immediately after the prototype appeared. Going by Wikipedia, the type name doesn’t seem to have been used much since WWII, except for some river gunboats that don’t seem all that Monitor-like. Has it been revived recently?
Mention of the CSS Virginia naturally led me to the USS Merrimack, whose namesake river has some tributaries that, IMHO, would make cool ship names: Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee.
No, but neither are dreadnoughts very common now. I suppose the case for not having a HMS Destroyer or HMS Cruiser would be a little clearer*, but it seems logical to me that navies would shy away from using names that had become generic even only in the historic sense.
- And, when you think about it, “Destroyer” almost should be a ship name in the vein of Indefatigable or Defiant.
Oh yes. I agree “Monitor” is generic. Your wording just made it sound like you might be saying the name was genericized only recently. Then again, “recent” in warship terms might mean different things to different people.
Destroyer would have been a good ship’s name. I also wonder why there hasn’t been a “Juggernaut,” although there might be religious objections to that. Sort of like the flap over naming a nuclear sub “Corpus Christi.” In the U.K. it seems they call semi-trailer trucks “Juggernauts”, but I guess those aren’t intended to be weapons of war.
They should let the USPS decide ship names in the USA.
Do you want the ‘USS Young, Hip Elvis’ or the ‘USS Old, Fat Elvis’?
It appears that the Army has taken over the use of Indian names, for classes of helicopters: Apache, Chinook, Blackhawk.
I’m glad to see this thread; I’ve always been bemused by British ship naming.
I think you will find the term “destroyer” can again be traced to Jackie Fisher. The torpedo boats of the English navies perceived enemies (France first, then Germany) could have wreaked havoc with the new battleships which did not have a huge amount of secondary armament. So they needed a fast vessel to accompany the fleet that would be able to combat or destroy the torpedo boats. Hence “destroyer”.
The system the Air Force uses for helicopters is rather entertaining. We seem to take the Army name, drop the first syllable, and add “Pave”, for reasons which escape me.)
For at least some ship types, there is still a system in the US Navy, from what I understand. Destroyers are typically named after fallen soldiers (just as airbases are typically named after service members who died in plane crashes or combat). I don’t think we still build cruisers, but the ones we have I think are all named after cities. It gets fuzzy beyond that, I think.
The USN seems to be naming their cruisers after US historical battles (like they used to name their carriers):
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&tid=800&ct=4
USS Wolverine was mentioned upthread. Very unique ship (along with the Sable). Great lakes training carrier in WW2. Coal fired, sidewheel paddle steamer! :eek:
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/wolver.jpg
While I understand the reasons that “Dreadnought” has fallen out of favor as a ship name, I do think that’s unfortunate. I mean, there’s very little more badass than a ship whose very name is a reminder to its enemies that her crew knows no fear.
Well, there’s still the “Invincible.”
Kinda wonder what names they’d come up with today, along those lines, though. HMS Maniac, or Psycho? Maybe? USS Stagger Lee?*
*USS Hookhand Killer doesn’t quite have the right ring to it.
Right now we are naming submarines after states. According to my calculations there are 22 state names available. The state that has gone the longest without a commisoned ship to its name is Montana. (1916, thought two later ships were to have the name but were canceled.)