Four ships of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 have been named Ajax, after Ajax

Ajax (mythology)

Ajax or Aias was a mythological Greek hero, the son of Telamon and Periboea and king of Salamis. He plays an important role in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War. To distinguish him from Ajax, son of Oileus , he is called "Telamonian Ajax," "Greater...

, a Greek hero during the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

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, launched in 1864 as USS Manayunk, renamed Ajax in 1869. Decommissioned 1898., named Scindia, a collier, purchased in 1898 and later converted to a seaplane tender. Decommissioned in 1925., a research vessel acquired in 1917, renamed USS Rockport in 1918. Sold 1919., a Vulcan-class repair ship, launched in 1941 and decommissioned in 1989.