08/23/2026
NINE SHIPS. ONE NAME. 242 YEARS OF WATCHSTANDING.
Before USS WASHINGTON (SSN-787) ever slipped beneath the surface, the name Washington had already spent more than two centuries at sea.
It began in 1775.
Before there was a United States Navy, George Washington purchased a small schooner named Endeavor, armed her, and sent her to sea against the British. She was renamed Washington.
That was Washington I.
The name would return.
Again.
And again.
It would belong to Revolutionary War galleys.
A massive 74-gun ship-of-the-line.
Revenue cutters hunting smugglers and protecting American commerce.
Then, in 1906, the name took on a new meaning.
USS Washington (ACR-11) became the first in the lineage named for the State of Washington—a steel-hulled armored cruiser built for a Navy becoming a global force.
Then came perhaps the most famous of them all.
USS Washington (BB-56).
A 35,000-ton battleship armed with nine 16-inch guns.
In November 1942, in the waters off Guadalcanal, Washington fought one of the few battleship-versus-battleship engagements of World War II.
In the darkness, her radar found the Japanese battleship Kirishima.
Washington opened fire.
Within minutes, Kirishima was mortally wounded.
The name WASHINGTON had gone from a small vessel fighting for the birth of a nation…
to one of the most powerful warships on Earth.
Then the name disappeared from the fleet.
For decades.
Until the Navy decided it was time for Washington to go to sea again.
But this Washington would be different.
No towering superstructure.
No 16-inch guns.
No battle flags visible on the horizon.
This one would fight from beneath it.
In 2017, USS WASHINGTON (SSN-787) joined the fleet,a Virginia-class fast-attack submarine built for a battlefield the Sailors of Washington I could never have imagined.
More than 240 years separate those two vessels.
Wood became steel.
Sails became nuclear power.
Cannons became torpedoes and Tomahawks.
Navigation by stars became inertial navigation and some of the most sophisticated sensors ever taken to sea.
But one thing never changed.
Someone still had to stand the watch.
From the Sailors who went to sea in 1775…
to the battleship crews fighting through the darkness off Guadalcanal…
to the submariners quietly operating somewhere beneath the ocean today…
the name has endured.
WASHINGTON.
Nine naval vessels.
More than two centuries of American sea power.
And now, one of the most capable submarines ever built carries that history beneath the waves.
This week, we honor that lineage.
⚓ TENACITY WATCH OF THE WEEK: USS WASHINGTON (SSN-787)
Because sometimes a name on the dial isn't just the name of a submarine.
It's 242 years of history.
P.S. This submarine is actually named for the state of Washington but it makes for a cool story to connect the lineage.
P.P.S. SSBN 598 George Washington was the first ballistic missile submarine as well.