I took my kids to see this ship yesterday at Battleship Cove, Fall River. I had been there once before, probably 25 years ago. It was a fascinating trip - with access to many areas of the ship. There needs to be some staff around though, because there is no one available to ask any questions to.
I was hoping that I could get a question answered here. What does the designation "BB" stand for? Thanks for answering.
US Navy designation for Battleship. Originally named B for pre-dreadnought designs and changed to BB after.
Standard Navy nomenclature of the era
CV Carrier CVL Light Carrier CVE Escort Carrier BB Battleship CC Battlecruiser (What Lexington and Saratoga would have been if not converted to CVs) CB Large Cruiser CA Heavy Cruiser CL Light Cruiser DD Destroyer DE Destroyer Escort SS Submarine
Countless others, but those are the major types from BB 59's day.
WmB
fascinating
In 1920 the U.S. simplified the ship numbering system to indicate the ship type by two letters. If the was no subtype the letter was simply repeated. Sine there was no subtype of a battleship it simply became BB. However like with crusiers you have CA's which are gunned and now CG's which are guided missle crusiers and also CGN which are nuclear gided missle crusiers. A google search of ship designations will give you several sites which explain this.
Mike
Thanks, everyone.
" WmB" wrote
Interestingly, the V stands for "heavier than air" aircraft. I don't know if there were ever any "CZ", but Z stands for "lighter than air". Z was used in blimp and dirigible designations and unit identifiers.
KL
Carrier, heavier than air.
I forget the designation but there were lighter than air carriers as well early on and the Navy made a distinction in the designators.
I don't remember if it was "Z" but there were a few specific ships of the type with type specific designators.
The first CVLs were 9 Cleveland class lightcruisers under construction when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Construction was suspended and they were redesigned and completed as Independence Class light carriers. As such they were a stopgap measure until the Essex class fleet units would become available a year after Pearl. Bush41 served on one - Princeton maybe?
The last ones were purpose built (not conversions) CVLs of the Saipan class - Saipan and Wright. Commissioned too late for WWII, IIRC.
Useless trivia picked up during a misspent youth.
WmB
San Jacinto.
No, it's a light aircraft carrier. IIRC, they were a lighter, smaller version of the Essex class.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
The US and since then most NATO countries has used the first letter (repeated) of a ships type as type designator, i.e. BB = Battleship, CC = Cruiser, DD = Destroyer, FF = Frigatte, and variations as CL = Cruiser Light, FS = Frigatte Small (Corvette). USN Airwings ahs been designated vith an V denoting Aircraft heavier than air, hence CV = Carrier of Aircraft heavier than air.
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