USS Hornet

Eight ships of the United States Navy have borne the name USS Hornet, after the stinging insect.

• The first Hornet was a ten-gun sloop commissioned in 1775, and served in the American Revolutionary War. The first two ships in the new Continental Navy were Hornet and USS Wasp.

• The second Hornet, also a ten-gun sloop, carried Marines to the shores of Tripoli. In a one-hour gun battle she silenced the citadel at Djerna[?] and landed the Marines thus deciding the war with the Barbary Pirates[?].

• The third Hornet was a brig-rigged sloop of war. She fought in the War of 1812 under command of James Lawrence[?], who gave the Navy the famous motto "don't give up the ship." She successfully blockaded Bahia Harbor[?], captured HMS Resolution, sank HMS Peacock[?], overwhelmed HMS Penguin[?], and escaped capture by HMS Cornwallis[?].

• The fourth Hornet was a five gun schooner used as a dispatch vessel between 1813 and 1820.

• The fifth Hornet, the first to be steam propelled, was an iron, side-wheeled steamer. She saw action during the Civil War, and later was ordered to duty in Cuban waters.

• The sixth Hornet, a converted yacht, was a dispatch vessel in the Spanish-American War.

• The seventh Hornet (CV-8), along with the Enterprise (CV-6), launched the Doolittle Raid in 1942, fought at the Battle of Midway, but was sunk during the Battle of Santa Cruz[?] on 26 October 1942.

• The eighth Hornet (CV/CVA/CVS-12) was originally named USS Kearsarge, but renamed in honor of CV-8 and active through the rest of World War II. She later recovered both Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 crews, and is preserved as a museum ship in Alameda, California.

The F/A-18 strike fighter carries on the name Hornet in the Navy.