9 Remarkable Facts About the US Navy

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress supported a modest naval force, outfitting ships for combat and even authorizing construction of three 74-gun ships. But the costs proved overwhelming, and only one was completed. By 1785, still struggling with postwar debt, Congress gifted that vessel to France and proceeded to sell off its existing fleet, including the frigate Alliance, the last remaining ship, which fetched $26,000 at auction.

The United States went nearly a decade without a navy—until 11 American merchant ships were attacked and captured by Algerian and Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. In response, Congress passed the Naval Act of 1794, authorizing the construction of six frigates and reviving the U.S. Navy.

Born John Paul in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, in 1747, Jones went to sea at 13 in the British Merchant Marine. He briefly served as a sailor in the slave trade before abandoning it in disgust. In 1773, after killing a mutinous sailor on the island of Tobago—Jones asserted self-defense—he fled to America to avoid trial. He adopted the name John Paul Jones to conceal his identity.

As a U.S. naval officer, Jones began attacking British ships, with great success. His legendary 1779 victory over the formidable English warship HMS Serapis made history and established Jones as one of the greatest naval commanders of all time. When pushed by the British to surrender mid-battle, he is famously said to have replied: “I have not yet begun to fight!”

According to U.S. Naval Institute historian Thomas J. Cutler, Jones’ success “helped American morale at a time when it was flagging.” And his raids dealt a major blow to British confidence—even affecting insurance rates for British merchants. “This was of particular importance,” says Cutler, who also serves as a distinguished fleet professor at the Naval War College, “because many members of Parliament were heavily invested in merchant shipping.”

The USS Langley, commissioned on March 20, 1922, began life as the coal transporter USS Jupiter. Its spacious holds made it ideal for conversion into the Navy’s first aircraft carrier. At the Norfolk Naval Yard in 1920, engineers made it happen, adding a wooden flight deck (some 534 feet long and 64 feet wide) and elevators for moving aircraft.

Why wood? The material was lighter than armored steel, which would have slowed the ship’s performance and speed. (But it was girded by a steel frame, which gave it strength to bear the weight of the planes.) The wood surface gave more traction to landing gear in slick conditions. And it absorbed less heat than metal, making the deck surface less likely to cause tire blowouts.

Naval crew aboard the USS Langley thought the ship looked strange sight due to its flat, wooden landing deck covering the entire top of the ship. The silhouette earned it the affectionate nickname, “the Covered Wagon.”

Before World War I, Navy service was closed to women. But the Naval Act of 1916 authorized “all persons who may be capable of performing special useful service for coastal defense," creating a loophole.

On March 19, 1917, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels approved the enlistment of women into the Naval Coast Defense Reserve. Serving as radio operators, stenographers, nurses and clerks, they were officially designated Yeoman (F) for female—but commonly called “Yeomanettes,” a term many disliked.

In October 1944, the U.S. Navy engaged in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, widely considered the largest naval battle ever fought. According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, it involved nearly 200,000 men fighting in four separate engagements across more than 100,000 square miles of ocean. Nearly 300 U.S. ships fought to liberate the Philippines, battling some 70 Japanese warships.

Japan sustained devastating losses included three battleships, four carriers, 10 cruisers and 11 destroyers, decimating its naval power for the remainder of the war.

While overshadowed by Normandy’s D-Day, says Cutler, “Leyte was important in that it was the largest naval battle in history, and … a U.S. defeat would have had serious consequences. The blow to morale would have been significant.”

The USS O’Bannon, nicknamed the “Lucky O,” was the most decorated destroyer of World War II—but it’s best remembered for an unlikely skirmish involving spuds.

On April 5, 1943, the ship encountered a Japanese submarine at close range—so close, one sailor noted, he could see Japanese sailors sleeping on the deck. Too near to fire its deck guns, the crew grabbed the nearest things at hand—potatoes—and hurled them. The startled Japanese sailors, mistaking them for grenades, scrambled to toss them overboard or back at the Americans.

The confusion gave the U.S. destroyer crucial time to move far away enough to begin firing its guns and dropping depth charges that are credited with sinking the sub. Later, the Association of Potato Growers of Maine sent a plaque to commemorate the event.

The Navy’s Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines, nicknamed “boomers” due to their incredibly powerful warhead capacities, can each carry up to 20 Trident II D5 missiles. And each missile can carry up to eight 100-kiloton nuclear warheads—collectively, nearly 50 times the yield of the roughly 16-kiloton Hiroshima bomb.

“More significant than the power of these weapons is the fact that the submarine part of nuclear triad takes away the ‘first strike’ option from the enemy,” says Cutler. “The other parts of the triad are targetable, whereas [stealth] submarines are not, thereby giving pause to an enemy’s temptation to strike first. The subs would survive to retaliate.”

In the mid-1990s, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory scientists David Goldschlag, Mike Reed and Paul Syverson developed onion routing, a way to transmit data anonymously through layers of encryption. In 2002, their innovation led to the development of Tor—The Onion Router—the foundation of today’s dark web.

Originally designed to protect U.S. intelligence communications, it also enabled the anonymous online activity that defines the modern dark web.

Following a seafaring tradition that dates back to the ancient Egyptians, the U.S. Navy brought cats aboard its ships for pest control, companionship and luck. Considered full-fledged members of the crew, “some even wore uniforms, slept in tiny hammocks and got paid,” according to Scot Christenson, director of communications for the U.S. Naval Institute and author of Cats in the Navy. And they were valued for more than just their rat-catching skills: Early sailors monitored their feline shipmates’ behavior to anticipate approaching storms.