Why are Ships Called 'SS'?

My dad used to tell the joke that England used HMS for His/Her Majesty's Ship, we used USS for United States Ship, and Italy used AMB for At'sa My Boat! Edit: Thanks for the love on this post. My dad, MSgt M.J. Fagan (USMC, Ret.) was indeed a great man, sadly gone over 6 years now. But goddamn if that Marine's stories don't live on, and that's enough for me. Cheers 🍻

Only Mike Brady can make a 11 minutes long video of a subject that can be read on a Google search in less than 2 minutes, and still enjoying the whole video anyway.

Hey! It’s our friend, Mike Brady, from Oceanliner Designs!

The best use of a ship's name was in the movie Hot Shots, the S.S. Esses 🤣

I'm quite fond of the occasional 'PS' - the almost-lost breed of steam paddlers.

I just enlisted as a "stoker" here. Mike deserves a bit of money for his work.

Sailed merchant steam boats for 32 years as an engineer. Retired as the last few SS's were converted to MV. Good stuff, Thanks.

I was once a passenger on a real old SS. What surprised me the most in it was how silent its reciprocating steam engine was. I got to visit the engine room while the ship was going at full speed and the engine was so silent that I could discuss with other people without rising my voice while standing right next to the engine. It was a very classical looking engine with crankshaft in open view and varying size multiple expansion cylinders above. Very different experience from diesel powered ships where you need to wear hearing protection in the engine room and where voice communication is totally impossible unless you can read lips.

The only oceangoing vessels ive ever been on had the prefix RV (for "Research Vessel". I'm an oceanographer)

When I think I don't have a single friend in this cold, hard world, I try remember that I will always have Mike Brady to fall back on and for that, I thank him.

YES! Ship prefixes are something I have pretty much always been fascinated by, and I am so glad that a major ship channel has covered them. Despite what modern media tends to depict, the prefix is not supposed to be painted on the ship's hull, nor is it italicized. It is something that continues to infuriate me to this day. As for the question of TSS, I consider it to stand for "Twin-Screw Steamer," while I abbreviate triple-screw steamer as "TrSS." Admittedly, despite my love for unusual prefixes, I can never quite get used to ones that incorporate lowercase letters in them.

During the monarchy, Italian warships used the prefix RN for "Regia Nave" (Royal Ship, with "regio" and "regia" meaning "royal" like "reale" but reserved for the Italian monarchy and its Sardinian predecessor). The Italian Republic did away with a lot of things from the monarchy, and prefix were one of them, so Italian warships don't have them anymore.

LAGIYFMBFOD = Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm your friend Mike Brady from Oceanliner Designs!

DUDE! I googled that exact question yesterday after wondering for about ...all my life. Life works in truly weird ways. This is so, so weird...

Yes, our friend Mike Brady from Ocean Liner Designs has uploaded again!

Hey, once again it's our friend Mike Brady benefiting us all with a wealth of information we did not know we wanted to know. Thank you! These always make my day.

As an argentinian, kudos for the ARA's pronuntiation!

I'm a DLODS then. A double legged Oceanliner Designs subscriber...

The Prefix HIJMS(His Imperial Japanese Majesty's Ship) has also been used for Imperial Japanese Navy ships and the prefix JDS(Japanese Defense Ship) is used for ships of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force. Tugboats also had prefixes, ST for steam powered tugs and MT for diesel powered tugs.

Hi from Belfast, ireland. Thanks for the videos Mike!