Five ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Essex, after Essex County, Massachusetts.
USS Essex (CV-9) (also CVA-9 and CVS-9) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier, the lead ship of her class.
USS Essex was an ironclad river gunboat of the United States Army and later United States Navy during the American Civil War. It was named for Essex County, Massachusetts.
The first USS Essex of the United States Navy was a sailing frigate that participated in the Quasi-War with France, the Barbary Wars, and in the War of 1812, during which she was captured by the British (1814).
USS Essex (LHD-2) is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship commissioned on 17 October 1992. Dick Cheney, then the Secretary of Defense in the first Bush Administration, spoke at the commissioning ceremony; the Essex was moored at North Island NAS, next to the Kitty Hawk (CV-63). Essex conducted an arduous and highly successful training program, during the spring and summer of 1993, and during September of that year, she was in dry dock in Long Beach harbor for about three months and her crew were at 4 section duty.
USS Essex, the third ship of that name, a wooden screw steamer, was built by the United States and Donald Mackay at East Boston, Massachusetts; commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 3 October 1876, Commander W. S. Schley commanding; and reported to the North Atlantic Squadron.
