Ship's Name's with Indiana connections??

Modeling Subjects Ships
1

I started this on the USS Indianapolis thread. After watching the search for the USS Mississinewa and they mention a ship called the USS Munsee. I started trying to list the US Navy ships with Indiana namesake’s. I thought this could be an interesting honors thesis. Write a short paper, build the ships, sounds good. So far:

BB-1 USS Indiana (Indiana Class)
BB-58 USS Indiana (South Dakota Class)

CA-35 USS Indianapolis (Portland Class)
SSN 697 USS Indianapolis (688 class submarine) Thanks breezely!!!

AO-59 USS Mississinewa (Cimarron Class)
AO-144 USS Mississinewa (Neosho Class)

ATF-107 USS Munsee (Penguin Class)

USS Vincennes (Boston Class)
CA-44 USS Vincennes (New Orleans Class)
CL-64 USS Vincennes (Cleveland Class)
CG-49 USS Vincennes (Ticonderoga Class)

USS Wabash
USS Wabash (EX-Tubingen)
AOG-4 USS Wabash (Patapsco Class)
AOR-5 USS Wabash (Wichita Class)

Named for INDIANA NATIVES
DDG86 USS Shoup (Arleigh Burke Class)
Any More??

2

That’s a fun project you have started Courtney. This may spark ideas for other modelers. They would be surprised how many ships may be named after local places and people. My club did a display in the Montana state capital with ships with the Montana namesake (Helena, Missoula, Chinook, Sakajewea). Two we could’nt do at the time due to time and budget constraints were the Ft. Belknap and the never built battleship Montana. But maybe someday.

I found in my small town of Chanute KS that the navy had three ships commissioned after namesakes in this town of 10,000. Two Neosho tankers and a liberty ship USS Martin Johnson. The musuem here for Martin Johnson offers solid hull wood kits of this ship. Revell had a kit of the WW2 tanker Neosho. I hope to maybe build all three for the museum, again, maybe someday.[:-^]

3

I thought it would be cool. Give my ship collection a little focus and give me an honors thesis with little writing. I’d love to fill a display case or two in the Honors College with model ships. I’m trying to decide if the A. Lincoln would be included since he grew up here. I’ll have to dig through each ship and decide it it belongs.

4

SSN 697 USS Indianapolis (688 class submarine)

5

If you really want to get nutty, I’m sure there’s ships named in honor of Navy Cross recipients that hail from Indiana…

Jeff

6

That’s the idea Jeff. I just have to start lookin’ ,stupid finals. I’m trying to talk myself into working on a paper. Forum and cross-stitch is winning.

7

I had to find and bump this topic. Looks like this will be my honors project next spring. I’m close to having an advisor for it. My main candidate said he thought it would be a good idea.

8

Good luck with your thesis. I spent some time on the SSN Indianapolis. I have some pictures of it somewhere.

9

USS Salamonie AO-26
USS Blackford APB-45

Here’s a list of Liberty’s with an Indiana connection:

SS Benjamin Harrison (named after the President, from Indiana)

SS Ovid Butler (Liberty Ship) (1800-1881) Founded Butler University in Indiana 1849.

SS SCHUYLER COLFAX (1823-1885) Congressman from Indiana. Speaker of the House 1863. Vice-President 1869-1873.

SS NORMAN J. COLLINS (1827-1911) Journalist and lawyer from Indiana, who became the first Secretary of Agriculture 1889.

SS JOHN W. DAVIS (1799-1859) Congressman from Indiana. Speaker of the House. Governor of Oregon Territory 1853-1854.

SS JULIA L. DUMONT (1794-1857) Became known as one of the greatest teachers in Indiana.

SS THOMAS A. HENDRICKS (1819-1885) Congressman and Senator from Indiana. Also Governor 1873-1877, Vice president of the United States 1885.

SS JONATHAN JENNINGS (1784-1834) Congressman from Indiana. Governor of Indiana 1816.

SS GEORGE W. JULIAN (1817-1899) Congressman from Indiana 1849-1851; 1861-1871.

SS MICHEAL C. KERR (1827-1876) Congressman from Indiana 1865-1873; 1875-1876.

SS HENRY S. LANE (1811-1881) Congressman from Indiana. Senator 1861-1867.

SS JAMES H. LANE (1814-1866) Congressman from Indiana 1853-1855. Senator from Kansas 1861-1866.

SS W. C. LATTA (1850-1935) Professor of Agriculture at Purdue University and farm leader of Indiana for over half a century. Directed Farmer’s Institutes in Indiana
1889-1923.

SS JOSHUA A. LEACH (1843-1919) Founder and first Grand Master of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fireman. Lived in Terre Haute, Indiana.

SS THOMAS R. MARSHALL (1854-1925) Governor of Indiana 1908. Vice President 1913-1921. Best known for “What this country really needs is a good 5 cent cigar”.

SS ELWOOD MEAD (1858-1936) Irrigation engineer from Indiana. Director of the American Bureau of Reclamation 1924.

SS ROBERT DALE OWEN (1801-1877) Social reformer. Congressman from Indiana 1843-1847. Helped establish the Smithsonian Institute

SS SAMUEL M. RALSTON (1857-1925) Senator from Indiana 1923-1925. Governor 1913-1917.

SS JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY (1849-1916) Poet from Indiana.

SS JOHN TIPTON (1786-1839) Soldier and legislator. Senator from Indiana 1831-1839.

SS WILL R. WOOD (1861-1933) Congressman from Indiana 1915-1933.

As I come across more I’ll post them up for you.

Hope that helps.

Jeff

10

Wow!! Thanks Jeff. That’s quite a list. I’d only found one so far that was named for a Hoosier born Marine Commandant.

11

At the link below is a list of the Hoosier’s who’ve been awarded the Medal of Honor; there are probably ships named after some of them, given the Navy’s habit of naming destroyers after such men.

http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/states/in.html

12

Would be interested if you end up writing a paper on this if you have to cite Jeff and other responders to this thread in your source material ? It sounds like an interesting topic

13

Source Material?? I want a royalty percentage!! :slight_smile:

Jeff

14

BB 1 ???
The designation raised an interesting point as I’d just submitted a cutline correction to an article in “Sea Classics” which listed the USS Texas (BB 35) as the first battleship to bear the state’s name. The “battleship” Texas was the Navy’s first battleship to be so designated. It was commissioned one month prior to the USS Maine and was later renamed San Marcos and eventually expended as a target. Now the Navy roster of BBs lists the Indiana (a sea-going coastal-type so-called to avoid problems with strict isolationists in the US Congress) as BB 1. The Indiana was commissioned three months after the Texas. The original Texas along with the Maine was engaged in the Spanish-American war as was the Indiana. So, will the REAL BB ! please stand up!!!
Your project sounds exciting, regardless of what number you give her. Good Luck.