State Ship Series: USS VIRGINIA
There have been four ships commissioned named after the Commonwealth of Virginia. The state of Virginia was admitted into the United States on June 25, 1788.
Christened/Launched: 1797
Commissioned: June 25, 1798
Decommissioned: June 1800
Transfer to the US Navy from the United States Revenue Cutter Service for Quasi-War and was commissioned from 1798 to 1800. She was returned the Revenue Cutter Service after the war and later sold in 1807.
[no photo or image, substitute is USS PENNSYLVANIA (1837)]
Class: North Carolina or Delaware
Type: 74 gun ship of the line
Christened/Launched: never completed
Laid down in 1822 as part of the "nine ships to rate not less than 74 guns each authorized by Congress on April 29, 1816, and was laid down in the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, in May 1822. She was finished about May 1825, and was kept on the stocks. Naval policy and the expense involved discouraged launching or commissioning the 74s except when the national interest clearly required it. Virginia remained on the stocks at Boston until it was broken up there starting in 1874."
Type: Predreadnought Battleship
Sponsor: Ms May Montague, daughter of Christens Vessel, Governor of Virginia
Christened/Launched: April 6, 1904
Commissioned: May 7, 1906
Decommissioned: August 13, 1920
Fate: used as a live fire exercise and sunk on September 5, 1923
Originally named NEW JERSEY before she was laid down due to political negotiations (Congress set limits on the price of armor and caused construction delays of the Virginias and Pennsylvania class of armor cruisers). Name switched with BB-16.
She took part in the World Cruise of the Great White Fleet.
Type: Nuclear Powered Guided Missile Cruiser
Ordered: December 21, 1971
Laid down: August 19, 1972
Sponsor: Virginia S. Warner, daughter of John Warner, former Secretary of the Navy
Christened/Launched: December 14, 1974
Commissioned: September 11, 1976
Motto: Sic Sempre Tyrannis (thus always to tyrants)
Decommissioned: November 10, 1994
Fate: nuclear power plant recycled and the ship scrapped
5. USS VIRGINIA (SSN-774)
Type: Nuclear Powered Attack Submarine
Ordered: September 30, 1998
Laid down: September 2, 1992
Christened/Launched: August 16, 2003
Commissioned: October 23, 2004
Motto: Sic Sempre Tyrannis (thus always to tyrants)
One she was named after the colony in the US Navy.
Christened/Launched: August 1776
Fate: Captured by the British and commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1778. Later sold in 1782.
Ships acquired by the Navy named Virginia.
Type: Steam Blockade Runner
Commissioned: June 12, 1863
Decommissioned: April 1865
She was originally named Pet and built in 1861 at Dumbarton, Scotland. Later she was renamed Noe-Daquy and sold to the Confederates, who renamed her Virginia in December 1862. Captured by the Union in 1863 and commissioned from 1863 to 1865.
Commissioned: August 10, 1917
Renamed SP-274 to avoid confusion
Decommissioned: August 12, 1919
Fate: hulk sold on April 1, 1920
She was chartered by the US Navy during World War I. Operated out of Detroit, Michigan and patrolled Lake Michigan. Sunk at her dock in Detroit on March 18, 1920.
Commissioned: July 13, 1917
Decommissioned: January 28, 1919
She was chartered by the US Navy during World War I. Patrolled around Machias, Maine.
Type: two-masted auxiliary schooner
Acquired: December 24, 1917
Commissioned: December 24, 1917
Decommissioned: January 3, 1919
Renamed USS SP-1965. She was chartered and refitted by the US Navy during World War I. Based in Norfolk, Virginia.
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U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: NH 102357
330-CFD-DN-SC-87-02014, 040730-N-1234E-002
