USS Hornet

Memorial Plaque for American naval ships named Hornet from 1775 to 1970

Eight ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Hornet, after the stinging insect.

• USS Hornet (1775), was a ten-gun sloop commissioned in 1775, and served in the American Revolutionary War
• USS Hornet (1805 sloop), was also a ten-gun sloop and took part in the First Barbary War
• USS Hornet (1805 brig), was a brig-rigged sloop of war launched on 28 July 1805 and sank in a storm on 29 September 1829
• USS Hornet (1813) was a five-gun schooner used as a dispatch vessel between 1814 and 1820
• USS Hornet (1865), the first to be steam propelled, was an iron, side-wheeled steamer
• USS Hornet (1898), a converted yacht, was a dispatch vessel in the Spanish–American War
• USS Hornet (CV-8), launched the Doolittle Raid in 1942, fought at the Battle of Midway, and was sunk at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October 1942
• USS Hornet (CV-12) was originally named Kearsarge, but renamed in honor of CV-8 and active through the rest of World War II and is preserved as a museum ship in Alameda, California