Why does battleship short for BB in the United States?

Question

What's the original phrase of BB? For example why not short for BS?
Such as: BB-55 North Carolina; BB-56 Washington; BB-57 South Dakota; BB-58 Indiana; BB-59 Massachusetts; BB-60 Alabama; BB-61 Iowa; BB-62 New Jersey; BB-63 Missouri; BB-64 Wisconsin...

So it should be hull designation, I just searched and found there're really large numbers of those. But I'm really wondering why the hull designation of Heavy Cruiser is CA while Light Cruiser's is CL. Does that "A" makes any sense?

Answer 1

It isn't an abbreviation, it's a hull designation, and for classes of ship with a one word name (ex - battleship, destroyer, frigate) they doubled the letter (BB, DD, FF).

There was a story that it had to do with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, but the Navy was using double letter hull designations long before that. In fact the USS Indiana (BB-1) was decommissioned before that treaty was signed.

As to why we didn't use "BS", my only answer is that after spending 21 years in the Navy, I never found that we had any shortage of BS. In fact, we usually had a large surplus.

Answer 2

The first B is battleship the second letter seems to mean battleship size.

A cruiser between the size of a heavy cruiser and a battleship was labled CB (probably cruiser, battleship size/class). CB-1 through CB-6.

So a BB is a straight battleship while CC is straight cruiser size.

Answer 3

Here is a list of the WWII naval ship hull designations & abbreviations:
http://www.valoratsea.com/shipdes.htm
Scroll down to the "Combatants" section which includes battleships, cruisers, destroyers, etc.

Here's the USN General Order establishing these designations from Dept of the Navy which was issued following WWI (1920):
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/genord_541.htm

Answer 4

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Answer 5

For those who care and those who don't know. CB stands for Battle Cruiser of which two were built in World War II. The USS Alaska and the USS Guam (CB1 and 2).

Cruiser Light, Cruiser Armored

Answer 6

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