United States Ship

United States Ship (abbreviated as USS or U.S.S.) is a ship prefix used to identify a commissioned ship of the United States Navy and only applies to a ship while she is in commission. Before commissioning, she is referred to as "Pre Commissioning Unit" (PCU). After decommissioning, she is referred to by name, with no prefix.

From the early beginnings of the U.S. Navy there had been no standard method of referring to U.S. Navy ships until 1907 when President Theodore Roosevelt issued Executive Order 549 on 8 January stating that all US Navy ships were to be referred to as "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".

Today's Navy Regulations define the classification and status of naval ships and craft:

  1. The Chief of Naval Operations shall be responsible for ... the assignment of classification for administrative purposes to water-borne craft and the designation of status for each ship and service craft. ....
  2. Commissioned vessels and craft shall be called "United States Ship" or "U.S.S."
  3. Civilian manned ships, of the Military Sealift Command or other commands, designated "active status, in service" shall be called "United States Naval Ship" or "U.S.N.S."
  4. Ships and service craft designated "active status, in service," except those described by paragraph 3 of this article, shall be referred to by name, when assigned, classification, and hull number (e.g., "HIGH POINT PCH-1" or "YOGN-8").
— United States Navy Regulations, 1990, Article 0406.

Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states and/or ship:

    “The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.”
    —Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

    “The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name.... We must be impartial in thought as well as in action ... a nation that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is disturbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly serviceable for the peace of the world.”
    —Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)

    “In it he proves that all things are true and states how the truths of all contradictions may be reconciled physically, such as for example that white is black and black is white; that one can be and not be at the same time; that there can be hills without valleys; that nothingness is something and that everything, which is, is not. But take note that he proves all these unheard-of paradoxes without any fallacious or sophistical reasoning.”
    —Savinien Cyrano De Bergerac (1619–1655)

    “I would rather not see such winds subside, which carry your slow ship away, although they leave me, cast down, on an empty shore, often, with clenched hand, calling you cruel.”
    —Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)