Two ships in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
have been named USS ''Thornton'' for
James Thornton.
* The first was a
torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...
, commissioned in 1902, decommissioned and redesignated ''Coastal Torpedo Vessel No. 16'' in 1918.
* The second was a , commissioned in 1918 and decommissioned in 1945.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton
United States Navy ship names