Web Sites of Interest to the Naval Cover Collector
General Order No. 74 June 27, 1908 Authorizes Post Offices on ships
US Naval Ship Data - Arranged by Hull Classification
By H.E. Musgrave
This is the official US Navy list of all Naval Ships and Service Craft.
The Naval Cover Museum is a cyber-museum specializing in the classification and presentation of Naval
Covers. The museum exists only in cyberspace and is meant to be a collaborative effort by people involved in the collection and study of Naval Covers.
www.navalcovermuseum.org
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
There are 2 online sources for The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, commonly known as DANFS, is the foremost reference regarding US naval vessels. Published in nine volumes (from 1959 to 1991), it gives histories for virtually every US naval vessel. There are two on line sources and both should be used as both sites are works in process and while one site may not list a particular ship, it may be found on the other site.
The Official US Navy version is a work in process with some gaps. However this version also adds some ships not in the printed version of DANFS and includes corrections to DANFS and updates to cover the period after DANFS was published.
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/index.html
A non-government source provides an online collection includes over 7000 ship histories and additional ships are being added by volunteers. These files are transcribed from the printed version of DANFS, without updating or corrections.