The city of San Diego has been the namesake for two U.S. Navy ships with distinguished careers in the two world wars. The armored cruiser USS San Diego served in World War I before its sinking by a German mine off the New York coast in 1918. Another USS San Diego would fight in World War II, remembered by San Diego author Fred Whitmore as “the unbeatable ship that nobody ever heard of.”  Read more about the USS San Diego of World War II.