Naval Hull Numbers
- Thread starter JDW63
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Yes, its been done in the past but not often.... Its considered unlucky to change the hull number and name of a ship... For example, the USS Constitution with more than 200 years in active service, Old Ironsides has never been decommissioned, once was given the hull number of IX-21 to meet a federal law of being on the ship's register... Fortunately, when Jimmy Carter was president, he had her hull number and classification rescinded... As long as she is still a commissioned ship in the US Navy I can't see anyone ever giving her a hull number again to meet the law...
Some of the Essex class carriers with CV-XX were reclassified as LPH-XX, with different numbers although they kept their names. The same could be said of heavy and light WWII cruisers which were reclassified CG and with new numbers although they kept their names. But I am sure names of ships have been changed in the past as well...
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Thanks for the help, (Keep the name, change the number., rub rabbits' foot vigorously!)
Juramentado
New Member
Ship Names are Changed And More Frequently Than Not...
USN Ships - by Name
USN Ship Naming
While it may be considered unlucky by mariners, the US Navy has changed names frequently in the past. I offer you two links: the first one is a list of Navy ships whose photographs are currently available in the history archives (there's another list by designator, you can find it by traversing up the site then down again) and the other is the FAQ on how the US Navy names ships. You'll see in the list that names were changed on ships and it wasn't such a rare occurrence.
USN Ships - by Name
USN Ship Naming
likewise RN dosn't like 13 Devonport dons't have 13th Dry dock and as far as I know their are no ship with the 13 as the pennent such as F-13 or RO-13
While hull numbers don't normally change unless the ship's type changes as happens occasionally, not all navies use them - some use pennant numbers and they can (and sometimes do) change on whim. For example, during the Soviet era in Russia pennant numbers were related to the fleet in which the ship was serving, so if you changed fleets you changed numbers; at one stage the Chinese changed theirs at regular intervals; after world war 2 when the NATO system was introduced all the subscribing countries changed theirs to the new system (although in some case it was just the flag superior which changed (for example, G to D for some RN destroyers)).
The USN does not have that fear. I used to know a Torpedoman who early in his career he volunteered for duty on USS Hawkbill (SSN-666) and according to him it was a sub you had to volunteer for (in other words your detailer couldn't just send you to it like any other sub).
Strange that even though there are USN ships with unlucky pennets numbers that saliors still don't like unlucky numbered ships. Curious why they just don't skip them like the rest of the world
Sandhi Yudha
Well-Known Member
The Indonesian navy desn't have problems wth 'unlucky' numbers, its just dumb superstition.
For example the patrol boat KRI Tongkol has the number 813 and the LST KRI Teluk Penyu has the number 513.
While the sailors and public may have unlucky numbers, the federal bureaucracy doesn't believe in mumbo jumbo and/or luck... One can't change the miles and miles of red tape...