The Origin of “U.S.S.”
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY
8 JANUARY 1907
THE ORIGIN OF “U.S.S.”
Prior to the 20th century there was no policy governing the titling of US warships in official correspondence. Navy vessels were sometimes distinguished from merchant or research ships by writing out the words “United States Ship” in front of their name. Alternatively, the type of vessel might be referenced (“Unites States Frigate CONSTELLATION”). Occasionally the ship’s rigging (“United States Brig SOMERS”) or mission (“United States Flag-Ship CONGRESS”) formed the basis of her identification. Following the Civil War a simple “U.S.S.” prefix fell into unofficial usage, however none of these practices was universal or mandatory.
Then the last century dawned upon a worldwide upsurge in navalism. Our nation’s success in the 1898 Spanish-American war was followed by Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, in which the battleship, in particular, became his “big stick” of foreign policy. Our Navy enjoyed a great expansion, in the year 1906 alone no less than six new battleships were commissioned. In June of 1906, Congress made an extraordinary authorization in the case of DELAWARE (BB-28), unprecedented in that it included no limit on her tonnage! By late 1906 planning was underway on the unrivaled endeavor of sending our Atlantic Battleship fleet (the so-called “Great White Fleet”) on a world cruise. Elsewhere that same year Britain commissioned HMS DREADNOUGHT, the most powerful battleship to date. Similar US designs had already been approved and on December 17th and 18th, respectively, the keels were laid for MICHIGAN (BB-27) and SOUTH CAROLINA (BB-26), our first Dreadnought-type, all-big-gun battlewagons. It is understandable that amid this naval ascendancy Roosevelt would require that US warships be formally designated as official agents of our government. On this date President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 549:
In order that there shall be uniformity in the manner of designating naval vessels, it is hereby directed that the official designation of vessels of war and other vessels of the Navy of the United States, shall be the name of such vessel preceded by the words, United States Ship, or the letters U.S.S., and by no other words or letters.
Unfortunately, we still had no convention for hull numbering, and the written-out identities of some ships remained cumbersome, for example, “UNITED STATES SHIP COAST TORPEDO BOAT NO. 6.” This problem was resolved in 1920 with General Order 541 that created our present alpha-numeric system of hull numbering.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 15 JAN 25
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, pp. 193-94.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 608-09, 698-702.
Love, Robert W. History of the US Navy, Vol 1 1775-1941. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 429-433.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: General Order 541 in 1920 shortened written-out designations and discriminated combatant from auxiliary Navy vessels by giving combatants a double-letter prefix–BB for battleship, FF for frigate, SS for submarine, etc. Auxiliaries were assigned a leading “A” as in AS for submarine tender or AO for oiler. Naval thinking of the 1920s emphasized gunnery–aircraft were thought useful largely for scouting and reconnaissance. Therefore, purpose-built aircraft carriers were classed as auxiliaries with the prefix “ACV.” Despite their changing role in modern times this convention has been continued, with the leading “A” often omitted. (The double “CC” designation was reserved, of course, for combatant cruisers).