Four ships of the United States Navy have borne the name USS Vesuvius, commemorating the Italian volcano located on the eastern side of the Bay of Naples, whose most famous eruption, on 24 August 79, destroyed the city of Pompeii and the town of Herculaneum.

USS Vesuvius was a bomb ketch and the first ship of the United States Navy named for the Italian volcano.

USS Vesuvius, the second ship of the United States Navy named for the Italian volcano, was a coastal cargoman built in 1845 at Brooklyn, New York, as Saint Mary. She was acquired by the Navy at New York City in 1846 for use with the blockading squadrons in the Gulf of Mexico. Records of the ship's service are sketchy at best, especially for her early service in the Navy.