Are you researching naval covers or ships? The USCS offers a number of reference publications. The reference material includes information on US Navy ship postmarks, cachet makers and collecting naval covers. There are also a number of small publications (Data Sheets) that include material both about naval covers and cancellations as well as information about US Navy ships.
An example of the Data Sheets is one listing US Navy and Coast Guard ships that were named for geographic places in the United States. This Data Sheet was compiled by a USCS member. This Data Sheet is available for free download or for preview.
Click here for the Data Sheet Ships Named for Geographic Places You will need to have (Adobe Acrobat required) and you can save a copy to your desktop.
Click here for a listing of all of the USCS reference publications. U.S.C.S. PUBLICATIONS