Original 12 Constitution class ships

[J.T.B.]

Seeing that list of names. Especially the ones of American significance. Makes me wish that the US Navy would return to naming aircraft carriers (the premiere ships of the fleet) after famous battles or previous highly decorated ships. Instead of politicians. I might make an exception for Farragut. He was a famous Civil War Admiral who said "Damned the torpedoes...Full speed ahead." The current real life USS Farragut is a destroyer.

I like the old names, myself, but an exception was made back in 1945 for the recently deceased President Roosevelt, the another for recently deceased Secretary of Defense/wartime Secretary of the Navy Forrestal, then another for the recently deceased President Kennedy, then another for the recently deceased Admiral Nimitz who led the Pacific forces in WW2, then another for the recently deceased President Eisenhower (who also led the European forces in WW2). None of those exceptions seem unreasonable, individually, but after you do it that many times it becomes more the rule than the exception. It doesn't bother me like it once did.

Having a name on a destroyer shouldn't be seen as less of an honor, though. It's traditional, and honors a lot of great people. Also, Farragut's name previously went to DLG-6, lead ship of what were then called guided missile frigates, which at the time was the newest and hottest thing around, so it was an extra honor and shared with other top admirals like Dewey and King.

You saw Potemkin and all you have to say is "not too bad"? That film, sir, is a milestone in the art of editing and montage cutting.

Ah, what's the big deal, I've seen that thing with the steps in dozens of movies!

 

[f14peter]

Seeing that list of names. Especially the ones of American significance. Makes me wish that the US Navy would return to naming aircraft carriers (the premiere ships of the fleet) after famous battles or previous highly decorated ships. famous.

The US Navy is naming an upcoming carrier after previously decorated ship(s) ... CVN-80 is slated to be USS ENTERPRISE, anticipated commissioning around 2025.

 

[Forbin]

Damn, I'll be 68 when the next Big E hits the water.

 

[BillJ]

Damn, I'll be 68 when the next Big E hits the water.

54 here.

 

[Push The Button]

Seeing that list of names. Especially the ones of American significance. Makes me wish that the US Navy would return to naming aircraft carriers (the premiere ships of the fleet) after famous battles or previous highly decorated ships. famous.

The US Navy is naming an upcoming carrier after previously decorated ship(s) ... CVN-80 is slated to be USS ENTERPRISE, anticipated commissioning around 2025.

Life should imitate art, the Navy should give it CVN-65A for a registry number.

 

[J.T.B.]

The US Navy is naming an upcoming carrier after previously decorated ship(s) ... CVN-80 is slated to be USS ENTERPRISE, anticipated commissioning around 2025.

Which will make it the second supercarrier name to be re-used, after John F. Kennedy.

Life should imitate art, the Navy should give it CVN-65A for a registry number.

One, it's not a registry number, and two, if it was it should be CV-6B.

 

[Captain Rob]

While it's great that the CVN-80 will be the next USS Enterprise. It's important to remember that the current ship was retired early. She was supposed to be retired when the Gerald R Ford joins the fleet in 2016. Also the USS Abraham Lincoln has been laid up at Newport News, Va awaiting it's refit and refuel. Out of 12 carrier battle groups, that puts us down by two.
I missed that the Gerald R Ford was launched last November. I was busy with my brother's passing. I hope the ship doesn't accidentally run into anyone.

As for "Battleship Potemkin". The movie had been in my Netflix cue for a while. I was curious where the name of one of the fictional starships originated. I had heard of the film title and was interested in why it was important. The movie was made in 1925 during Stalin's rise to power. And I got what I expected in a heavy-handed piece of Soviet propaganda. Also the exaggerated facial expressions, gestures and action which you MUST have to compensate for it being a silent movie. As a result I got educated by researching the actual event of the Russian Black Sea Fleet mutiny, and the Sino-Japanese War which it followed. Which featured another Star Trek name. The Japanese battleship Kongo; later to be sunk during World War II.

By the way. CVN-65 is to suffer the same fate as it's predecessor, CV-6. It's to be eventually scrapped. With a nearly $18 Trillion debt. I think the US government could spend a little to preserve the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

 

[Ithekro]

If that were the case, CVN-65 would mean something like: Aircraft Carrier, Nuclear, Number 6 (five times larger). (Or Cruiser, Aviation (or Voler), Nuclear 65 if you will)

 

[J.T.B.]

I think the US government could spend a little to preserve the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

It wouldn't be a little, it would be an absolutely enormous expense to put the ship back together after she is cut to pieces for defueling and disposal of the nuclear components. Like a good chunk of the cost of building a new carrier.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

As a result I got educated by researching the actual event of the Russian Black Sea Fleet mutiny, and the Sino-Japanese War which it followed. Which featured another Star Trek name. The Japanese battleship Kongo; later to be sunk during World War II.

That's good to know. All these years, actually decades now, I thought the starship Kongo was named after a sweltering "people's republic" in Africa. I'm going to be honest, it wasn't something I loved about Star Trek lore.

 

[feek61]

As a result I got educated by researching the actual event of the Russian Black Sea Fleet mutiny, and the Sino-Japanese War which it followed. Which featured another Star Trek name. The Japanese battleship Kongo; later to be sunk during World War II.

That's good to know. All these years, actually decades now, I thought the starship Kongo was named after a sweltering "people's republic" in Africa. I'm going to be honest, it wasn't something I loved about Star Trek lore.

I believe the country is spelled "Congo"

 

[Ithekro]

Kongo was built in the United Kingdom for Japan as a battlecruiser based on an improved version of the British Lion-class Battlecruiser. She was finished just a year before World War One. The British liked some of the features and put them into their battlecruiser HMS Tiger.

Kongo and her three sister ships remained in service (more or less) until World War II. By then they had gotten a number of rebuilds and refits and were longer, and faster than they had been when launched in the 1910s. By 1940 they were fast battleships and would be used a lot with the carriers and for operations away from Japan. Kongo was sunk in Nomember of 1944 by a US submarine. Two others of her class (Hiei and Kirishima) were both sunk in November of 1942 only a few days apart. Hiei to damage from surface combat and an air attack and while Kirishima was involved in one of the few battleship on battleship engagements of the war against two new American fast battleships (USS South Dakota and USS Washington). The last of the class, Haruna, was partially sunk at harbor in July of 1945 and was broken up after the war. The wreck still served as an AA platform in defense of Japan. Her scrap was said to have been used to help rebuild Japan, so some of the locals have a special place for that ship in their lore.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I believe the country is spelled "Congo"

Yeah, and "everybody knows that," right?

According to the Wikipedia disambiguation page, Kongo is an alternate spelling of the river in Africa that the country was named for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo#Africa

 

[Ithekro]

The ship is named after Mt. Kongo in Japan. Japanese heavy cruisers and battlecruisers are named after mountains.

 

[Push The Button]

The US Navy is naming an upcoming carrier after previously decorated ship(s) ... CVN-80 is slated to be USS ENTERPRISE, anticipated commissioning around 2025.

Which will make it the second supercarrier name to be re-used, after John F. Kennedy.

Life should imitate art, the Navy should give it CVN-65A for a registry number.

One, it's not a registry number, and two, if it was it should be CV-6B.

Sorry Floyd, please forgive me. Next time I'll warn you when I'm joking so that you aren't offended.

 

[J.T.B.]

Kongo always seemed like an odd choice for a Japanese-origin name to me. Not as famous as battleships Mikasa or Yamato, or the Pearl Harbor carriers. Maybe because she was on the "good" side in WW1?

The last of the class, Haruna, was partially sunk at harbor in July of 1945 and was broken up after the war. The wreck still served as an AA platform in defense of Japan. Her scrap was said to have been used to help rebuild Japan, so some of the locals have a special place for that ship in their lore.

I knew an old boy who dropped a bomb down her funnel at Kure from his SB2C (VB-6, Hancock). He had a Navy Cross in a ragged box in a junky dresser drawer.

Sorry Floyd, please forgive me. Next time I'll warn you when I'm joking so that you aren't offended.

No offense taken, I wasn't serious about CV-6B, either.

 

[Ithekro]

Kongo I think made an impression in the days after she was launched up to the end of the war. It was the most active of the Japanese battleship classes during the war. Kongo also went after Admiral Graf Spee during World War One, but never found him. Mikasa is only known if one know Russo-Japanese War history (1904-05), and Yamato, while famous was something secret and late in the war (as far as doing anything). The Kongos were active from start to finish while the rest mostly waited for the decisive that was never going to come after Pearl Harbor. With the main battleship fleet out of action, the American were not able to follow Plan Orange, and thus the Japanese couldn't simply wait for them to arrive with, Fuso, Yamashiro, Ise, Hyuga, Nagato, and Mutsu being the line to stop the Americans along with the new Yamato and Musashi. Thie left the four Kongos to do all the work.

Akagi and Kaga might have made good starship names, but I imagine some names were still touchy in 1966. Though a lot of these names would show up on expanded charts of the Contitution-class or other classes in Starfleet over time. Canon and non-canon of course. Yamato eventually becoming a sistership to the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise.

 

[Captain Rob]

The Japanese battleship Yamato was a beautiful ship as well as being the largest battleship ever built. I still have a model of her I built during high school lying around my closet somewhere. It's a crying shame that she died with virtually no war record. She was reduced to being a gigantic kamakazi boat and was torpedoed and bombed to pieces. At least Bismark got to go out in a final blaze of glory.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

It's a crying shame that she died with virtually no war record... At least Bismark got to go out in a final blaze of glory.

That could be taken to mean your sympathies were with the Axis, or at least that you wish the Allies had suffered more to defeat fascism. I'd like to think you just got a little carried away romanticizing about war machines , and you agree our guys suffered enough as it was.

 

[garak1]

Many thanks for the detailed replies. I had no idea there was so much ambiguity around the issue.