There have been seven United States Navy ships named USS New York in honor of the state, including the most recent, USS New York (LPD 21). The keel was laid for the newest ship on September 10, 2004 and her motto is "Never Forget."
According to Naval records, several other ships have carried the name the USS New York. This new ship was given the name the USS New York when former New York governor George Pataki wrote to Secretary of the Navy Gordon England and requested that the Navy use the name to honor the victims of September 11 and to give it to a surface ship that would be used to fight the War on Terror. This is an exception to the current use of state names for submarines only.
The first ship to carry the name USS New York was an armed gondola built by Revolutionary War General Benedict Arnold in 1776. She was burned to avoid capture later in the Revolutionary War.
The second ship named USS New York was a 36-gun frigate built in New York and commissioned in 1800. She saw service in the Mediterranean in the war against the Barbary Pirates. She was burned by the British in 1814 while she was in the Washington Navy Yard.
The third USS New York was one of nine built to discourage a future war with Britain after the war of 1812. The threat abated, so she was never launched. Union forces later burned the 74-gun ship of the line to avoid her capture at the start of the American Civil War.
Beginning in 1863, a screw sloop was being built that would have carried the name USS New York, but it also never got launched, being sold in 1888.
The fifth USS New York (ACR 2) was an armored cruiser commissioned in 1893. She was used in the Spanish-American War and was the flagship of Rear Admiral William T. Sampson in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba (July 3, 1898), which destroyed the Spanish fleet. She was later renamed the USS Saratoga in 1911 and then renamed again as the USS Rochester in 1917.
The sixth was the battleship USS New York (BB 34), commissioned in 1914. She saw service in both World War I and World War II. She participated in atomic testing off the Bikini Islands surviving both an atmospheric explosion and an underwater detonation. She was used as a target ship in 1948 and was sunk off Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Finally, the Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine USS New York City (SSN 696) was in service from 1979 until 1997.
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Jan Garanoz
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Last updated: June 26, 2010