USS Belknap (CG-26)
_underway_in_the_Mediterranean_Sea_on_21_July_1992_(6480605).jpg) USS Belknap (DLG-26 / CG-26) 1992 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | May 16, 1961 |
| Keel laying | 5th February 1962 |
| Launch | July 20, 1963 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | November 7, 1964 |
| Decommissioning | February 15, 1995 |
| Whereabouts | Sunk September 24, 1998 as a target ship |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
8957 ts |
| length |
166.7 m |
| width |
16.8 m |
| Draft |
9.4 m |
| crew |
64 officers, 546 men |
| drive |
4 Brown & Wilcox water tube boilers |
| speed |
34 kn |
The USS Belknap (DLG-26 / CG-26) was an American guided missile cruiser of the Belknap class .
history
The Belknap was laid down at Bath Iron Works in 1962 , and was launched 17 months later. The baptism was performed by Mrs. Leonard B. Cresswell. The cruiser entered service on November 7, 1964 at Boston Naval Shipyard , Boston, MA. The first in command of the ship was Capt. John T. Law.
On November 22, 1975, the Belknap was badly damaged off Sicily by a collision with the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) . At night in heavy seas, the Belknap came under the overhanging flight deck of the JFK . As a result, a fire broke out on board the Belknap . Since the superstructure of the cruiser was made of an aluminum alloy , the magnesium part of which self-ignited in the heat, these melted down completely except for the steel deck. Seven sailors lost their lives on the Belknap , one on the porter. The Charles F. Adams-class destroyer USS Claude V. Ricketts (DDG-5) also joined the fire fighting work . This fire led the Navy to decide to rebuild ships completely from fire-resistant steel, despite their weight. The Belknap was decommissioned after the accident, until 1978 how to proceed was considered. Options included the integration of the Aegis combat system . However, the available funds were not sufficient for this, and so the ship was rebuilt in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard by 1980 and returned to the fleet. A few years later, the ship was rebuilt so that it could serve as a flagship . In addition, another deckhouse was added in front of the front superstructure. Around 1990 the ship was the flagship of the 6th fleet .
During its deployment in the Mediterranean, the ship was used in 1989 at the summit meeting with the Soviet Union off Malta . In order to discuss radical changes between the relations between the USA and the Soviet Union, US President George Bush and the General Secretary of the CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev agreed on a meeting at which the talks should be held on the ships of the nations. The USA sent the Belknap , the Soviet Union the guided missile cruiser Slawa . The ships did not dock at the quay, but lay in the roadstead . When a storm broke out, Gorbachev, on the advice of his advisors, refused to go to the Slava in a small motorboat , so the meeting took place on the passenger ship Maxim Gorkiy , which had docked in the port. In order to raise the morale of the occupation, the Soviet armed forces spread the rumor among their soldiers that the American president was seasick .
In 1995 the Belknap was withdrawn from service and sunk three years later as a target ship.
Web links
- USS Belknap Association (Engl.)
- Pictures of the Belknap at navsource.org (engl.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Constantine Pleshakov : There Is No Freedom Without Bread !: 1989 and the Civil War That Brought Down Communism , Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009, p. 211