As a Russian speaker, I find this sentence grating. Is it normal to refer to a ship with a male name as "she"? Would this be right?
> USS George Washington has never seen combat, nor would she be of much practical military use.
(For those that don't know, Russian last names are slightly different depending on the gender. So Admiral Kuznetsov's wife's last name would be Kuznetsova.)
Yes. I don't know the history behind it but ships and vessels are generally referred to using female pronouns in English. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_English#Ships
> (For those that don't know, Russian last names are slightly different depending on the gender. So Admiral Kuznetsov's wife's last name would be Kuznetsova.)
e.g. From Wikipedia - "USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) is a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier in the service of the United States Navy. The ninth ship of her class,[2] she is named in honor of former President Ronald Reagan" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ronald_Reagan
Yes, in English ships are always referred to as 'she,' and also never with the definite article. I.e., one doesn't write 'the USS George H.W. Bush has never seen combat, but she'll wipe the deck with any contenders,' but rather, 'USS George H.W. Bush has never seen combat, but she'll wipe the deck with any contenders.'
I'm sure that there's a reason in the mists of time, but it honestly doesn't matter: a navy which loses hold of its traditions isn't much more than an armed yacht club, and thus every navy worth its salt holds onto them.
Isn't it a bit the same as the Russian classic Avrora -- it is a female name, but the ship (Крейсер) referred to as a male? Same thing as Diana (a sister, ... brother? ship) to Avrora in the same class. Just because it is called Diana and battleship are male in Russian, it doesn't change its name to Dionis, Denis or something silly like that.
> General Patton has never seen combat, nor would she be of much practical military use.
(given Gen. Patton is a widely known character thus those familiar know he's a "he")
And, IME, its fairly common even in formal writing -- but, again, not from particular entities, like the USN -- to use the definite article when no prefix (HMS, USS, etc.) is used.