Got any good ship nicknames?

The Oklahoma City got a pretty good nickname when it was home ported in Yokosuka , Japan. We were in port with just a couple of other ships and so when we went to town we could barter with the girls that worked the bars and keep the prices cheap. However this changed when a carrier came in that had been out to sea for several months. Them guys had been saving up their pay all that time and spent money like there was no tommorow . When they got to town the prices doubled and trippled .The girls that worked the bars knew that us guys off the Oklahoma City couldnt spend what the carrier sailors would for female companionship and so when they looked at our ships name patch the girls would shake their heads and say in broken english "no no you from  "O Cheapy City Maru " and walk off looking for a sailor from the carrier . Needless to say we had some unprintable nicknames for them carrier guys.

I'll add some to the pot...

USS City of Corpus Christi is known by many things to the crew...

       City of Constant Crisis, the COC*, and in everyday terms when not mad at her just "City of"

USS Salt Lake City (the sub) was Slave Labor Camp.

USS San Francisco was "Building 7-11' for her first few years in Guam.

Cheers,

Dave

DBFSS385 wrote:

Some boats like the San Francisco are nicknamed their hull numbers like 7-11 etc. I'm willing to wager that the Submarine Service had many more nicknames for their boats than the skimmers did.

My dad's destroyer The USS Eaton DD-510 was called "The Fighting Nickel & Dime" she was a fletcher class that served from 1943 -1969 then sunk as a target ship in 1970 may she RUST in Peace

<EDIT> just after posting this my roomie who was on the USS Blue Ridge LCC-19 in the 80s says his ship was nicknamed "The Love Boat" because it was never out of port for more than 2 weeks or so and was considered a "party boat" due to its stays in liberty ports

I retired as an RM1 after 21 years and only remember a couple of nicknames for ya:   

USS Lawrence DDG-4    "LarryBoat" or sometimes "Leaky Larry"

USS Fairfax County LST-1193 "Firefax County" after a pretty bad engineroom fire off of Palma, Spain in 1978 or 79

USS John F. Kennedy CV-67  "Crash Kennedy" referring to the collision with USS Belknap

USS Affray MSO-511  "USS Afraid"

Sorry thats all I can remember---senior moments etc.  Rick Martin

USS Okinawa was known as the Brokinawa, Uss Tripoli was known as the Crippoli, Uss Ranger was known to the Pacific Fleet after the Incident off El Salvadore as the Danger Ranger. That cruise was also known as the Crash and Burn cruise. Ranger collided with the unrep ship while refueling, and later lost 6 sailors to a main space fire.USS Kitty Hawk was known as Shi**y Kitty. There was a supply ship in San Diego that was known as The Love Boat due to the number of females on board.

Hey Chief, I retired in '91 as an RM1 I think I was under the weight limit myself. Took the chief's test at least 8 times, made the selection board everytime but never made chief. "Marty" Martin

The U.S.S. Houston came to be called 'The Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast', as she evaded the Japanese during the first few months of the war.