USS Brooklyn (ACR-3/CA-3) was the third United States Navy armored cruiser, the only one to be named at commissioning for a city rather than a state.

The Flying Squadron was a United States Navy force that operated in the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Spanish West Indies during the first half of the Spanish–American War. The squadron included many of America's most modern warships which engaged the Spanish in a blockade of Cuba.