The ''Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships'' (''DANFS'') is the official
reference work
A reference work is a work, such as a paper, book or periodical (or their electronic equivalents), to which one can refer for information. The information is intended to be found quickly when needed. Such works are usually ''referred'' to ...
for the basic facts about
ship
A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...
s used by the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
.
When the writing project was developed the parameters for this series were designed to cover only commissioned US Navy ships with assigned names. If the ship was not assigned a name it was not included in the histories written for the series.
In addition to the ship entries, ''DANFS'' and the online links have been expanded to include appendices on small craft, histories of
Confederate Navy
The Confederate States Navy (CSN) was the naval branch of the Confederate States Armed Forces, established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the American ...
ships, and various essays related to naval ships.
Forewords and introductions
Foreword and
introduction
Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to:
General use
* Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music
* Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...
passages for many editions were written by
big names from
naval command history from
Arleigh Albert Burke to
Elmo Russell Zumwalt, Jr. and others.
Authors
Publication data
''DANFS'' was published in print by the
Naval Historical Center
The Naval History and Heritage Command, formerly the Naval Historical Center, is an Echelon II command responsible for the preservation, analysis, and dissemination of U.S. naval history and heritage located at the historic Washington Navy Yard. ...
(NHC) as bound hardcover volumes, ordered by ship name, from Volume I (A–B) in 1959 to Volume VIII (W–Z) in 1981. Several volumes subsequently went out of print. In 1991 a revised ''Volume I Part A'', covering only ship names beginning with A, was released. Work continues on revisions of the remaining volumes.
Volunteers at the Hazegray website undertook to transcribe the ''DANFS'' and make it available on the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...
. The project goal is a direct transcription of the ''DANFS'', with
changes limited to correcting typographical errors and editorial notes for incorrect facts in the original.
In 2008 the NHC was re-designated as the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC). It has developed an online version of ''DANFS'' (see
External links
An internal link is a type of hyperlink on a web page to another page or resource, such as an image or document, on the same website or domain.
Hyperlinks are considered either "external" or "internal" depending on their target or destinatio ...
section below) through a combination of
optical character recognition
Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronic or mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo of a document, a sc ...
(OCR) and hand transcription. The NHHC is slowly updating its online ''DANFS'' to correct errors and take into account the gap in time between the print publication and the present date. NHHC prioritizes updates as follows: ships currently commissioned, ships commissioned after the original volume publication, ships decommissioned after original volume publication, and finally updates to older ships.
The NHHC has begun a related project to place Ship History and Command Operations Reports online at their ''DANFS'' site.
Reference use
As the ''DANFS'' is a work of the U.S. government, its content is in the public domain, and the text is often quoted verbatim in other works. Many websites organized by former and active crew members of U.S. Navy vessels include a copy of their ships' ''DANFS'' entries.
The ''Dictionary'' limits itself largely to basic descriptions and brief operational notes, and includes almost no analysis or historical context.
See also
*
List of sloops of war of the United States Navy
*
List of sailing frigates of the United States Navy
This is a list of sailing frigates of the United States Navy. Frigates were the backbone of the early Navy, although the list shows that many suffered unfortunate fates.
The sailing frigates of the United States built from 1797 on were unique ...
*
Bibliography of early American naval history
Historical accounts for early U.S. naval history now occur across the spectrum of two and more centuries. This Bibliography lends itself primarily to reliable sources covering early U.S. naval history beginning around the American Revolution per ...
References
External links
Naval History and Heritage Command - Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
{{US Navy navbox
1959 non-fiction books
Encyclopedias of the military
Dictionary
United States Navy publications
Naval History and Heritage Command