Naval History and Heritage Command

The schooner Hero and the steamer Hero are former names retained. The monitor Hero is named for a priestess of Aphrodite at Sestos who, according to Greek legend, threw herself into the Hellespont after her lover, Leander, had drowned while swimming from Abydos to meet her.

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The wooden schooner Hero was purchased at Baltimore 13 August 1861 to obstruct inlets to Pamlico Sound, N.C., near Cape Hatteras. She was apparently sunk in Ocracoke Inlet 14 November 1861 with two other schooners of the stone fleet.