Bullwinkle58
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Chickenboy
quote:
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
They were Army and Coast Guard vessels. A "USS" is by law a "national ship" and has certain rights and duties under law and treaty. Armies don't run national ships.
Yer right about "USS" being a prefix for USN flagged ships.
But WRT the 'national ship' duties and rights-are you sure about that?
FDR's Executive Order # 9054 (http://www.usmm.org/fdr/wsalaw.html) suggests certain rights and duties under law (executive order) that appear largely indistinguishable from USN ships' rights. The establishment of the WSA seems to treat all available such shipping with the same broad 'nationalized' brush.
That's my read, but then again, I'm no legal wonk.
The Executive Order specificaly exlcuded
"except
(1) combatant vessels of the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard; fleet auxiliaries of the Navy; and transports owned by the Army and Navy;"
So what was the legal status of an Army transport wich was not a commisioned ship--a "USS"?
Good quesiton. Certianly their crews individually were subject to the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions. But was the ship itslef accorded the rights and duties of a commissioned national ship? Don't kinow without research. I'd say no, else they woudl have been USS vessels.
The official US Navy hisotry site sez:
"A Note on Navy Ship Name Prefixes
The prefix "USS," meaning "United States Ship," is used in official documents to identify a commissioned ship of the Navy. It applies to a ship while she is in commission. Before commissioning, or after decommissioning, she is referred to by name, with no prefix. Civilian-manned ships of the Military Sealift Command (MSC) are not commissioned ships; their status is "in service," rather than "in commission." They are, nonetheless, Navy ships in active national service, and the prefix "USNS" (United States Naval Ship) was adopted to identify them. Other Navy vessels classified as "in service" are simply identified by their name (if any) and hull number, with no prefix.
Into the early years of the 20th century there was no fixed form for Navy ship prefixes. Ships were rather haphazardly identified, in correspondence or documents, by their naval type (U.S. Frigate ____), their rig (United States Barque ____), or their function (United States Flag-Ship ______). They might also identify themselves as "the Frigate _____," or, simply, "Ship ______." The term "United States Ship," abbreviated "USS," is seen as early as the late 1790s; it was in frequent, but far from exclusive, use by the last half of the 19th century.
In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt issued an Executive order that established the present usage:
In order that there shall be uniformity in the matter of designating naval vessels, it is hereby directed that the official designation of vessels of war, and other vessels of the Navy of the United States, shall be the name of such vessel, preceded by the words, United States Ship, or the letters U.S.S., and by no other words or letters.
--Executive Order 549, 8 January 1907.
Today's Navy Regulations define the classification and status of naval ships and craft:
1. The Chief of Naval Operations shall be responsible for ... the assignment of classification for administrative pur- poses to water-borne craft and the designation of status for each ship and service craft. ....
2. Commissioned vessels and craft shall be called "United States Ship" or "U.S.S."
3. Civilian manned ships, of the Military Sealift Command or other commands, designated "active status, in service" shall be called "United States Naval Ship" or "U.S.N.S."
4. Ships and service craft designated "active status, in service," except those described by paragraph 3 of this article, shall be referred to by name, when assigned, classification, and hull number (e.g., "HIGH POINT PCH-1" or "YOGN-8").
-- United States Navy Regulations, 1990, Article 0406.
Some, but apparently not all, other navies also use prefixes with their ships' names. Perhaps the best known of these is "HMS" (His or Her Majesty's Ship), long used by the Royal Navy. In earlier times this was also seen as "HBMS," for "His Britannic Majesty's Ship." British Empire/Commonwealth navies used their own versions of this, inserting their own nationalities, such as HMCS for Canada, HMNZS for New Zealand, or HMAS for Australia. The Royal Saudi Naval Forces also use "HMS." Argentina uses "ARA" (Armada de la Republic Argentina); the Philippine Navy identifies its ships as "BRP" (Barka ng Republika ng Pilipinas). The Imperial German Navy used "SMS" (Seine Majestäts Schiff); the World War II Kriegsmarine does not appear to have used a prefix, but the modern Bundesmarine uses "FGS" (Federal German Ship). India and Israel both use "INS" to mean Indian Naval Ship or Israeli Navy Ship. Lebanon and Tunisia, on the other hand, do not use any nationality prefix."
In past eras, being a national ship was an important legal distinction becuase it was a vessel of the sovereign and thus needed no letters of marque to take prizes. Prizes also belonged to the sovereign after legal due process through the prize court. A non-national ship without Letters of Marque was a pirate, a bad thing to be.
National ships also were under military law and discipline. Courts martial and not civil suits for ill-behavior. National ships could in some navies press crew where the same behavior in a non-national was kidnapping. A national ship could incur debts in foreign ports in the name of the sovereign; merchant ships could not. A national ship was rendered honors and returned them (in most cases; the USN was and is picky); a non-national ship came and went quietly. And so on.
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The Moose
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#2 NOT! for the purest. - 
Sorry, it's not the LCVP-281. Take a hint from the two other NOT for the purests and try again.
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