That Time When the Navy Changed the Names of the Ships

That Time When the Navy Changed the Names of the Ships

 

John S. Naylor – December 9, 2025

 

Over the past several months, the rare practice of re-naming ships in the fleet has popped up in the zeitgeist, widely viewed as part of the prosecution of modern culture warfare. It’s spurred the Congressional Record Service to issue a history to the guidelines used in naming ships. There probably are better ways the Navy could be spending time and treasure than in changing ships' names to suit political sensibilities. Sadly, there is a precedent for the renaming of vessels engaged in honorable service, at the hands of less than enlightened characters placed in positions of power, dating back to the days following the Civil War. 


ADOLPH E. BORIE 

When Ulysses Grant was sworn in as the 18th President of the United States, he offered the position of Secretary of the Navy to Adolph Borie, a Philadelphia mercantile trader. Borie dealt in silk and tea and wasn’t widely known outside of his hometown; however, candidate Grant had promised a Pennsylvanian would be included amongst his cabinet members if he were elected.

Taking office in early March of 1869, it’s a wonder that Borie took the position at all; the new cabinet officer apparently didn’t see moving to Washington to be a requirement for serving in the cabinet. He remained in Philadelphia, where he continued to manage his business interests, and controlling his part in the Navy through correspondence. In his absence, he largely left the running the department to Admiral David Dixon Porter, as Admiral David Farragut was mostly engaged in making public appearances on his post-Civil War victory lap.

Amongst his accomplishments, Borie was responsible for desegregating the Washington Navy Yard and implemented the eight-hour workday in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Not insignificant events to the men serving a shrinking Navy, but his legacy in terms of the appellation of warships is a little bit less commendable. In a visible and lasting manner, he ordered the renaming of a great number of Navy ships. As Frank Bennett wrote in his history of the steam navy:

 

“a great many changes being made in the summer of 1869 by circular orders issued be the Navy Department. American names were usually discarded and, in many cases, especially with the monitors, names borrowed from the mythology of the ancients substituted for them; some names were changed twice within a few weeks; some were changed back to their originals, and some received for new name those that had belonged to vessels of other classes, much confusion resulting as a consequence.” 

 

During the Civil War, under Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, many ships of the expanding wartime Navy were named using Native American placenames taken from tributaries and rivers found around the country. For example, the USS TONAWANDA, a twin-turreted ironclad monitor of the MIANATONOMOH class, had been named after a creek in Western New York. Under Borie, she was renamed USS AMPHITRITE, after Poseidon’s wife. Similarly, MINNETONKA became the CALIFORNIA, PISCATAQUA became the DELAWARE and MOSHULU became USS SEVERN. 




USS CHIMO, CSS STONEWALL, USS TONAWANDA


The newspaper The Independent published a rebuke of Welles’ policy on naming ships, which was republished in the Army-Navy Journal, vol.5, 1868-1869: 



"To give the name of such a disgusting savage as the Camanch (sic) to one of our national ships when we have so many fine-sounding names which illustrate our history, is a piece of folly."


Fortunately, Borie’s tenure as Secretary of the Navy was brief; he’d left the running of the department largely up to Admiral David Dixon Porter, and resigned in June of 1869. Unfortunately, his replacement, George M. Robeson, completely enmired the department in controversy and alleged graft — Admiral Porter himself, and members of Congress, eventually called for Robeson’s impeachment. Adolph Borie’s short time at the tiller left the slightest of marks on the Steam-Navy’s legacy, but remains an interesting footnote in the history of culture wars and ships’ names.

Sources:

-       Frank M. Bennett. The Steam Navy of the United States. W.T. Nicholson, Pittsburg. 1896.

-       Wikipedia

-       Report of the Secretary of the Navy – 1869.

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