How long have ships carried individual names, and why are large fleets of E-boats and similar craft commonly identified by numbers?
Short answerShip names reach back to antiquity, but numbering becomes more practical when hundreds of small craft would exhaust and duplicate a useful naming pool.
NotesShips carried names long before modern hull-designation systems, with the practice reaching back to antiquity. Navies do not apply that tradition uniformly to every vessel. A small class can sustain memorable individual names without much difficulty, while hundreds of fast attack craft rapidly exhaust a sensible naming pool. Numbering is therefore a practical response to quantity and identification rather than a judgment that the craft are unimportant.