50 Fun Facts About Navy

The US Navy dates its birthday to the Continental Congress authorizing two armed vessels on which date?

The Navy only settled on that birthday in 1971; the Continental Navy itself was disbanded in 1785 after the war ended.

Which captain fought HMS Serapis from the Bonhomme Richard in 1779 and is called 'Father of the American Navy'?

Born plain John Paul in Scotland, he went to sea at 13 and later served as a rear admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy.

USS Constitution became 'Old Ironsides' by capturing which British frigate in 1812?

She went on to take Java, Pictou, Cyane and Levant too, and public affection for the nickname repeatedly saved her from the scrapyard.

USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship afloat, is berthed in which city?

She was launched there in 1797 and sailed under her own power in 2012 to mark the bicentennial of her War of 1812 victories.

Who led the 1804 night raid that burned a captured American frigate in Tripoli harbor?

He sailed in on the captured ketch Intrepid, disguised as a local trader, and became a national hero at 25.

At the 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads, the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia had been rebuilt from the hulk of which burned Union steam frigate?

That is why the clash with the Union's Monitor is still popularly called the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack, even though the Confederate ship had a new name.

Who ordered the 16-battleship 'Great White Fleet' to sail around the world between 1907 and 1909?

The hulls wore the Navy's white peacetime paint with gilded scrollwork on the bows, which gave the fleet its nickname.

Which commander of Japan's Combined Fleet planned the Pearl Harbor attack?

He hoped a knockout blow would let Japan grab territory quickly and negotiate peace; the three US carriers he most wanted were all at sea that morning.

Which battleship, where 1,177 died at Pearl Harbor, still lies beneath a memorial built across it?

Every other battleship sunk that day except Utah was refloated, and six of them returned to fight in the war.

How many Japanese fleet carriers were sunk at the Battle of Midway in June 1942?

Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū all went down, along with the heavy cruiser Mikuma, after US codebreakers had tipped off the Pacific Fleet.

Which US carrier, patched up in days after the Coral Sea, was the only American flattop lost at Midway?

The Japanese believed she had already been sunk at the Coral Sea, so her sudden reappearance helped throw off their planning.

Asked where the April 1942 Doolittle raiders had launched from, FDR joked they came from which fictional place?

The 16 B-25 bombers had actually flown off the carrier Hornet; the Navy later named an Essex-class carrier after the fictional valley.

The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed on 2 September 1945 on the deck of which battleship?

She was the last battleship the United States ever commissioned and has been a museum ship at Pearl Harbor since 1998.

USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine, made history in August 1958 by doing what?

Launched in 1954 and sponsored by Mamie Eisenhower, she has been preserved as a museum ship in Groton, Connecticut, since 1986.

Which officer, who supervised the building of USS Nautilus, is known as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy"?

He stayed on active duty until 1982, by which point he had served 63 years, longer than any other officer in Navy history.

Which 1961 carrier, the first nuclear-powered one, is still the longest naval vessel ever built at 1,123 feet?

She ran on eight reactors, was the only ship of her class, and served for over 55 years before decommissioning in 2017.

The Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team took its name from what?

The 1946 team spotted the club's advertisement in The New Yorker; the Blues are the second-oldest formal aerobatic team in the world.

Which jet did the Blue Angels switch to for their six-aircraft demonstration in 2021?

The team traded its legacy Hornets for Super Hornets for the 2021 season; each modified jet stays in fleet inventory and can return to combat duty within 72 hours. Its cargo plane is a C-130J nicknamed Fat Albert.

The first two Navy SEAL teams were commissioned in January of which year?

Team One went to Coronado, California and Team Two to Little Creek, Virginia; both grew out of the WWII-era Underwater Demolition Teams.

What does the acronym SEAL stand for in 'Navy SEALs'?

The name spells out the three environments the teams are trained to operate in; their notoriously brutal selection course includes 'Hell Week'.

Which Secretary of the Navy founded the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1845 and names its giant dormitory?

He was also a noted historian; the campus sits on the grounds of the old Fort Severn where the Severn River meets Chesapeake Bay.

What is the greased obelisk Naval Academy plebes climb at the end of their first year called?

The greasing tradition began in 1955; the monument sits across from the Naval Academy Chapel, whose dome is visible across Annapolis.

What is the Naval Academy's live mascot named, adopted after Navy first beat Army in football in 1890?

Navy adopted the goat as its mascot in 1890, the year it beat Army in their very first football meeting.

The 'Navy Hymn', written by William Whiting in 1860 and inspired by Psalm 107, is known by what title?

It is also the Royal Navy's hymn and was sung at the funerals of several US presidents and of Prince Philip.

The annual Army–Navy football game, first played in 1890, is most often held in which neutral city?

It is roughly equidistant from the two academies; the game has been played every year without interruption since 1930.

TOPGUN was established in 1969 at which California naval air station?

Its first headquarters was a stolen modular trailer; the school moved to Nevada in 1996 and was immortalized by the 1986 Tom Cruise film.

The Navy's Seabees take their name from the initials of what?

The units were created after Pearl Harbor to replace civilian contractors in combat zones; John Wayne played one in the 1944 film The Fighting Seabees.

Alongside 'We build, we fight', which two-word slogan did the Seabees famously adopt as their motto?

Wartime signs added the boast that the difficult they did at once, while the impossible took a little longer.

The first Fleet Week was held in 1935 in which city, alongside an exposition it hosted?

Some 114 warships and 400 military aircraft turned up; today the best-known Fleet Weeks are in New York and San Francisco.

Which admiral, killed at Trafalgar in 1805, signalled 'England expects that every man will do his duty'?

His body came home in a cask of brandy lashed to the mainmast, and his column now dominates the London square named after the battle.

Which 104-gun ship of the line, dry-docked at Portsmouth since 1922, is the oldest naval vessel still in commission?

She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since 2012, and cost £57,748 to build.

Who commanded the Spanish Armada that sailed against England in 1588?

An aristocrat with little sea experience, he was ordered to link up with Parma's army in Flanders and refused to deviate from that plan.

On the night of 7–8 August 1588 the English broke up the Armada's anchorage off Calais by sending in what?

The English sacrificed eight of their own warships; the Spanish feared they were 'hellburners' packed with gunpowder like those used at the Siege of Antwerp.

Which Japanese admiral annihilated Russia's Second Pacific Squadron at Tsushima in 1905?

His flagship Mikasa is preserved as a museum ship at Yokosuka, and it was the only decisive battle ever fought between fleets of modern steel battleships.

The Russian fleet's attack on British trawlers, mistaken for Japanese warships, is named for which North Sea bank?

The Russians fired for twenty minutes; only their terrible gunnery kept the death toll low and Britain out of the war.

In May 1941 the German battleship Bismarck destroyed which British battlecruiser in the Denmark Strait?

The loss triggered a hunt by dozens of Royal Navy warships; a Swordfish torpedo bomber from Ark Royal jammed Bismarck's rudder two days later and sealed her fate.

Which country's navy had the most warships and support vessels in the world as of 2024?

The People's Liberation Army Navy was founded in April 1949 and has commissioned three aircraft carriers since 2012.

Which US submarine made the first submerged circumnavigation of the Earth in 1960?

She did it on her shakedown cruise; her unusual two-reactor plant was a key reason she was picked for the job.

Who were the two men aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste in the Challenger Deep in 1960?

The Office of Naval Research had bought the craft from its Swiss designer for $267,000 in 1958; it is preserved at the National Museum of the US Navy in Washington.

What does the prefix 'USS' before the name of a commissioned US Navy vessel stand for?

Earlier abbreviations named the vessel type, such as USF for frigate, until a 1907 executive order made the single prefix standard for commissioned ships.

Aboard a US Navy ship, the 'goat locker' is the mess and sleeping area reserved for whom?

The name goes back to sailing days, when the ship's goat lived in the chiefs' quarters; even the captain must ask permission to enter.

The eagle above the chevrons on a Navy enlisted rating badge is nicknamed what bird?

The nickname comes from its black colour on white uniforms; the design was standardised in 1894.

David Farragut's famous order 'Damn the torpedoes' was given at which 1864 battle?

The 'torpedoes' were moored mines; Farragut went on to become the first officer ever to hold the rank of admiral in the US Navy.

Which Texas-born fleet admiral led the US Pacific Fleet in WWII and named a carrier class?

His grandfather's hotel in Fredericksburg houses the National Museum of the Pacific War.

USS Indianapolis, sunk in July 1945, had just delivered components of which weapon to Tinian?

The Navy did not learn she had sunk for four days; her survivors' ordeal with sharks was later retold in Jaws.

Which US Navy ship, seized by North Korea in 1968, is still in commission but sits as a museum in Pyongyang?

She started life as an Army freighter built in Wisconsin in 1944 and was converted into an intelligence-gathering ship.

Which Japanese battleship class, the heaviest ever built, mounted nine 18.1-inch guns?

Each of the three-gun turrets weighed more than a 1930s destroyer, and the shells could travel 26 miles.

Which Virginia city is home to the world's largest naval station?

The base fills about four miles of waterfront at Sewell's Point on Hampton Roads and is the homeport of the Atlantic Fleet.

Whom did Congress appoint the Continental Navy's first commander-in-chief in December 1775?

A Rhode Islander with powerful political connections, he was later censured and dismissed by Congress in 1778.

Who commanded Britain's Grand Fleet at Jutland in 1916?

Churchill later said he was the only man on either side who could have lost the war in an afternoon.