I'm only now realizing this character is called Massachusetts, and a number of ship names are also towns from Massachusetts. How do they come up with the names? I LIVE in Massachusetts, plus they have towns in Maine and more, It has me super confused.
Early ships of the US Navy had a variety of names, most paying homage to naval heroes (Raleigh), ideals of the young United States (Independence), or American cities (Boston). In 1819, Congress signed an act which placed the responsibility of ship naming with the Secretary of the Navy. Provisions of that act laid out rules for naming ships, some of which held through World War II: “all of the ships, of the Navy of the United States, now building, or hereafter to be built, shall be named by the Secretary of the Navy, under the direction of the President of the United States, according to the following rule, to wit: those of the first class shall be called after the States of this Union; those of the second class after the rivers; and those of the third class after the principal cities and towns; taking care that no two vessels of the navy shall bear the same name.” As new ship types joined the navy, new naming conventions were drawn up. By the start of the war, each type of ship had a dedicated ship naming convention.
I'm only now realizing this character is called Massachusetts, and a number of ship names are also towns from Massachusetts. How do they come up with the names? I LIVE in Massachusetts, plus they have towns in Maine and more, It has me super confused.
From Wikipedia: The vessels of the Navy shall be named by the Secretary of the Navy under direction of the President according to the following rule: Sailing-vessels of the first class shall be named after the States of the Union, those of the second class after the rivers, those of the third class after the principal cities and towns and those of the fourth class as the President may direct.
