USS Hancock

Several ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Hancock or USS John Hancock, in honor of patriot and statesman John Hancock.

USS Alliance (1778)

The first Alliance of the United States Navy was a 36-gun sailing frigate of the American Revolutionary War.

Originally named Hancock, she was laid down in 1777 on the Merrimack River at Amesbury, Massachusetts, by the partners and cousins, William and James K. Hackett, launched on 28 April 1778, and renamed Alliance on 29 May 1778 by resolution of the Continental Congress. Her first commanding officer was Capt. Pierre Landais, a former officer of the French Navy who had come to the New World hoping to become a naval counterpart of Lafayette. The frigate's first captain was widely accepted as such in America. Massachusetts made him an honorary citizen and the Continental Congress gave him command of Alliance, thought to be the finest warship built to that date on the western side of the Atlantic.

1779

The new frigate's first assignment was to carry Lafayette back to France to petition the French Court for increased support in the American struggle for independence. Manned by a crew composed largely of British and Irish sailors, Alliance departed Boston on 14 January 1779 bound for Brest, France. During the crossing, a plot to seize the ship, involving 38 members of the crew, was uncovered on 2 February before the mutiny could begin. The disloyal sailors were put in irons, and the remainder of the voyage, in which the frigate captured two prizes, was peaceful. The ship reached Brest safely on the 6th.

USS Lewis Hancock (DD-675)

USS Lewis Hancock (DD-675) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named for Lieutenant Commander Lewis Hancock, Jr. (1889–1925).

Lewis Hancock was laid down 31 March 1943 by Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Kearny, N.J.; launched 1 August; sponsored by Lt. Joy Hancock, USNR, widow of Lieutenant Commander Hancock, and the first Wave officer to christen a U.S. combatant ship; and commissioned 29 September 1943, Comdr. Charles H. Lyman III in command.

World War II

Following shakedown out of Bermuda, Lewis Hancock in company with Langley (CVL-27) sailed from New York 6 December for the Pacific; arrived Pearl Harbor on Christmas Day 1943; and joined Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher’s Fast Carrier Task Force (then 5th Fleet's TF 58, later 3rd Fleet's TF 38), a mighty naval weapon organized to neutralize Japanese airpower and forward bases in advance of leapfrogging American amphibious operations. On 16 January 1944 Lewis Hancock sortied from Pearl Harbor with Task Group 58.2 (TG 58.2) for the invasion of the Marshall Islands. Assigned the task of neutralizing enemy airpower on Kwajalein Atoll, the flattops in Lewis Hancock’s group smashed the airdrome at Roi on the 29th, destroying every Japanese plane. The next day a second carrier strike hit defensive positions softening enemy emplacements in preparation for landings on the 31st. For the next 3 days planes from the carriers provided close tactical support for the marines who wrested the atoll from the Japanese Emperor. The destroyer returned to Majuro Logoon on the 4th.