Ship Names Common and Strange: from Betsey to the Doctors Box

Having come across some odd ship names during my studies of the Revolutionary War, I decided to go through the index of a volume of Naval Documents of the American Revolution and note all the names of vessels listed there (about 550 in all). I divided them up into categories and noted which ones were more commonly used. Here are some categories, the most common ones listed first, with typical examples of each:

1. Women’s names: Definitely the most popular, though generally not used for warships. Some of the more common ones were Betsey, Elizabeth, Molly, Mary, Peggy, and Sally. Sometimes “Charming” was added to the beginning.
2. Places: Also very common. Albion (a name for England), America, Baltimore, Halifax, Thames.
3. Concepts and adjectives: Hope, Resolution, Adventure, Friendship, Lively, Diligent, Favorite, Prudent.
4. Famous people, past or present: William & Mary, Black Prince, British Queen, Congress, Hancock, Richard Penn.
5. Nature (especially animals): Dolphin, Ocean, Swallow, Bull Dog, Greyhound.
6. Literary or mythological people and creatures: Phoenix, Argo, Juno, Mermaid, Homer, Unicorn.
7. Men’s names: James, John, William.
8. Relationships: Brothers, Two Brothers, Three Brothers, Two Sisters, Three Sisters, Friends, Three Friends.

Then there were some rather odd or amusing ones:

• Carcass (rather than a dead body, this may refer to a type of combustible artillery shell — a fire bomb, so to speak)
• Collector (of what?)
• Escape (doesn’t sound very inspiring, but I guess it’s comforting in case you’re worried about getting caught)
• Grampus (a member of the dolphin family)
• Macaroni
• Ninety-Two
• Porgy
• Prosperous Amelia
• Quero (this ship was the first to bring the news of Lexington and Concord to England)
• Sandwich Packet (this one sounds odd, but it wasn’t really; Sandwich is a town in England, and a packet was a vessel appointed by the government to carry mail, etc.)
• Symmetry (aren’t all ships more or less symmetrical?)
• Doctors Box (beats me)

And, last but not least — no, I’m not kidding — the Conclusion.