Navy Oilers derived their names from Cities, Mountains and the Rivers shown in yellow.
OILERS ARE DETAILED BELOW - BORDER STATES ARE LINKED
This list starts in Maine and works it's way south. View ship details through link on ship number
AO = Fleet Oiler Ship. AOE = Fast Support Ship. AOT = Oil Transporter.
| Ship
Name History |
Ship
Number NavSource Link |
Construction Data |
River
Name Data |
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| USNS Susquehanna | TAO-185 | See
Deleware Area .............................. |
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| USS Fort McHenry NOT AN OILER |
LSD-43 |
Launched, 1 Feb. 1986 |
Fort McHenry, in Baltimore,
Maryland, is a star shaped fort best known for its role
in the War of 1812 when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor
from an attack by the British navy in the Chesapeake Bay.
It was during this bombardment of the fort that Francis Scott Key was
inspired
to write "The Star-Spangled Banner,"
the poem that would eventually
be turned into the national anthem of the United States as inspired by
Colonel Caleb Cariton at Fort
Meade South Dakota. the song was set to the tune of a
British song "To Anacreon in Heaven". See the words at the bottom
of this page. |
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| USS Severn | AO-61 | Launched, 31 May 1944 |
The Severn River runs through Anne Arundel County in Maryland. It is located south of the Magothy River, and north of the South River. Severn means "boundary stream". The first USS Severn (1867) was a wooden screw sloop of war. | ||
| USS
Patuxent USNS Patuxent |
AO-44 TAO-201 |
Launched, 25 July 1942 Launched, 23 July 1994 |
The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in
the state of Maryland. The Indian village of the same name existed on
the banks of the river along with other Indian tribes. |
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| USS Anacostia | AO-94 | Launched, 24 September 1944 |
The Anacostia River is a river that flows about 8.4 mi from Prince George's County in Maryland, USA and through Washington, D.C. where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River. The name “Anacostia” is derived from the Indian word “anaquash” meaning a village trading center. The first USS Anacostia (1856) was a steamer, constructed as a tugboat. | ||
| USS Potomac USNS Potomac |
AO-150 TAO-181 |
Laid Down in 1957 Launched, 10 October 1964 |
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located
along the mid-Atlantic coast. The river is approximately 383 statute
miles long. AO-150 was destroyed, 26 September 1961, by fire at
Moorehead City, N.C.. Other Potomac's |
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| USNS Cumberland | TAO-153 | Laid Down, June 1944 |
A city in western Maryland. |
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| USS Cacapon | AO-52 | Launched, 12 June 1941 |
The Cacapon River, located in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle region. Cacapon (pronounced CaCApon) is a derivative of a Shawnee Indian word meaning "medicine waters". | ||
| USS
Monongahela USS Monongahela |
AO-42 AO-178 |
Commissioned 11 September 1942 Launched, 4 August 1979 |
The Monongahela is formed by the confluence of the West Fork River and the Tygart Valley River at Fairmont, West Virginia. The river is navigable its entire length with a series of locks and dams.At Pittsburgh, it meets the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River. The once thriving Monongahela Indian culture disappeared from southwestern Pennsylvania by 1635. The first USS Monongahela (1862) was a 2078-ton steam screw sloop. | ||
| USNS Parkersburg | TAO-163 | Launched, 12 April 1944 |
Parkersburg, named after Alexander Parkers, is located at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Little Rivers, is the third largest city in the State of West Virginia. | ||
| USS
Kanawha USNS Kanawha |
AO-1 TAO-196 |
Launched, 11 July 1914 Launched, 22 September 1990 |
The Kanawha river, 97 miles long, is the largest and most
important river in
West Virginia. It originates a short in Virginia and extends across the
state through Charleston and empties into the Ohio river. The River was named for the Indian tribe that once lived in
the area. The spelling of the Indian tribe varied at the time from
Conoys to Conois to Kanawha.
the first USS Kanawha (1861) was a steamer. |
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| USNS
Bull Run |
TAO-156 |
Launched, 29 June 1943 |
Bull Run is a free-flowing tributary stream of the Potomac River that originates from a spring in the Bull Run Mountains in Loudoun County, Virginia and flows south to the Occoquan River. | ||
| USS
Tappahannock |
AO-43 |
Launched, 18 April 1942 |
Tappahannock, located on the banks of the Rappahannock River, is the oldest town in Essex County, Virginia. Its name comes from the Algonquian language word lappihanne (also noted as toppehannock), meaning "Town on the rise and fall of water" or "where the tide ebbs and flows." | ||
| USNS
Rappahannock |
TAO-204 |
Launched 14 January 1995 |
The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia, approximately 184 mi in length. It traverses the entire northern part of the state, from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the west across the Piedmont to Chesapeake Bay south of the Potomac. The name of the river comes from an Algonquian language word lappihanne (also noted astoppehannock), meaning "river of quick, rising water" or "where the tide ebbs and flows." This name was taken from the name given to it by the local native population the Rappahannock Tribe |
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| USS Rapidan |
AO-18 |
Launched 29 October 1919 |
The Rapidan River is the largest tributary of the Rappahannock River in North-central Virginia. |
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| USS
Mattaponi |
AO-41 |
Launched 17 January 1942 |
The Mattaponi River is a tributary of the York River estuary in eastern Virginia. The Mattaponi tribe traces its history back to the Powhatan Confederation of tribes led by Chief Powhatan | ||
| USNS Lynchburg |
TAO-154 |
Acquired 17 November 1956 |
Named for John Lynch, son of land-owner Charles Lynch and Quaker Sarah Clark Lynch. | ||
| USNS Roanke USS Roanke |
TAO-155 AOR-7 |
Lent to Navy in 1957 Launched 7 December 1974 |
The town first called Big Lick was established in 1852 and
chartered in 1874. It was named for a large outcropping of salt which
drew the wildlife to the site near the Roanoke River. In 1882 it became the town of
Roanoke, and in 1884 it was chartered as the independent city of
Roanoke.
The name Roanoke is said to have originated from an Algonquian
word for shell "money". View ships MODEL |
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| USS Nantahala | AO-60 | Launched, 29 April 1944 | The Nantahala River is an 8 mile long river in western North Carolina within the Nantahala National Forest, and near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The word "Nantahala" comes from Cherokee meaning "Land of the Noonday Sun." The river runs through a narrow and steep gorge (the "Nantahala Gorge") where, in spots, the sun is overhead during the mid-part of the day. | ||
| USS Waccamaw | AO-109 | Launched, 20 March 1946 |
The Waccamaw River is a river, approximately 140
miles long, in southeastern North Carolina and eastern South Carolina.
It drains an area of approximately 1110 square miles of the coastal
plain into the Atlantic Ocean. |
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