Navy to Christen Frigate For Samuel Eliot Morison

A new frigate named after the late history professor Samuel Eliot Morison '08 will enter the U.S. naval fleet today.

Rep. Thomas P. O'Neill (D-Mass.), speaker of the House of Representatives, will deliver the main address at the 10 a.m. commissioning of the USS Samuel Eliot Morison at the Charelstown Navy Yard, north of the Boston Harbor.

The USS Morison is probably the first Navy ship named after a Harvard professor, John H. Parry, Gardiner Professor of History, said last Friday. Morison was professor of History here from 1915 to 1955.

Morison also served as a historian in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1951, reaching the rank of Rear Admiral.

Although he never fired a shot in his naval career, he won Pulitzer Prizes for his books "Admiral of Ocean Sea" and "John Paul Jones." Between 1949 and 1962, he wrote the 15-volume work, "U.S. Naval Operations in World War II."

The 455-foot ship is one of the Navy's new guided missile frigates, meant to guard against submarine, surface and air threats.

The USS Constitution, the oldest frigate in the Navy, will welcome the Morison when it arrives from its construction site in Path, Maine.