Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index At least five ships of the United States Navy have borne the name Yorktown, to commemorate of the decisive Battle of Yorktown in the American Revolutionary War. The first Yorktown was a 16-gun ship sloop commissioned in 1840 that sunk in 1850 after hitting a reef in the Cape Verde islands. The second Yorktown was a gunboat commissioned in 1889 and decommissioned in 1921. The third Yorktown (CV-5) was an aircraft carrier commissioned in 1937, and a major combatant in World War II until she was sunk at the Battle of Midway in 1942. The fourth Yorktown (CV-10) was also an aircraft carrier, commissioned in 1943, a participant in World War II and the Vietnam War, decommissioned in 1970 and later a memorial at Patriot's Point, South Carolina. The fifth Yorktown (CG-48) is a guided missile cruiser, commissioned in 1984 and still on active service as of 2003. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.