USS Virginia

Ten United States Navy ships, and two of the Confederate Navy, have borne the name USS Virginia, after the tenth state.

• The first USS Virginia was a 28-gun sailing frigate built in 1776, captured by the British in the following year and taken into their service as HMS Virginia.

• The second Virginia was a 14-gun revenue cutter built in 1797 and returned to the Revenue Cutter Service in 1801.

• The third Virginia was a 74-gun ship of the line laid down in 1818 but never launched, and broken up on the stocks in 1874.

• A captured Spanish blockade runner Virginia was a Navy ship between 1863 and 1865. or The fourth USS Virginia, originally known as Pet and as Noe-Daquy, was captured during the American Civil War and commissioned in the Union Navy.

• The fifth Virginia (BB-13) was a battleship commissioned in 1906, decommissioned in 1920, and destroyed in 1923 as a bombing target.

• The sixth USS Virginia (SP-274), a yacht purchased by the Navy and officially referred to only as SP-274, patrolled Lake Michigan out of Detroit, Michigan during World War I.

• The seventh USS Virginia (SP-746), a motorboat acquired by the Navy and officially referred to only as SP-746, patroled the coast out of Machias, Maine during World War I.

• The eighth USS Virginia (SP-1965), a two-masted auxiliary schooner acquired by the Navy and officially referred to only as SP-1965, patroled the coast out of Norfolk, Virginia during World War I.

• The ninth Virginia (CGN-38) was a nuclear guided missile cruiser, commissioned in 1976 and decommissioned in 1994.

• The tenth USS Virginia (SSN-774), is the lead ship of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines. or A sixth Virginia is expected to be the lead ship of a new class of attack submarine, and was under construction in 2003.

The CSS Virginia was the Confederate name for the USS Merrimac rebuilt as an ironclad.

See also CSS Virginia II (an ironclad ram).