Definitions for "USS Hornet"
Keywords:  hornet, navy, sloop, yorktown, gunboat
Eight ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Hornet, after the stinging insect.
The seventh USS Hornet (CV-8) of the United States Navy was a Yorktown class aircraft carrier of World War II, notable for launching the Doolittle Raid, as a participant in the Battle of Midway, and for action in the Solomons before being irreparably damaged in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.
The first USS Hornet was a merchant sloop chartered from Captain William Stone in December 1775 to serve under Stone as a unit of Esek Hopkins' Fleet.