USS Macon (CA-132)
_underway_at_sea_on_25_July_1948.jpg)
|
|
| period of service |
.svg){kind=small}
|
|---|---|
| Keel laying: | June 14, 1943 |
| Launch: | October 15, 1944 |
| Commissioning: | August 26, 1945 |
| Decommissioning: | March 10, 1961 |
| Painted: | 1st November 1969 |
| Fate: | Disassembled |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement: | 17,031 ts |
| Length: | 205.3 meters |
| Width: | 21.6 meters |
| Draft: | 7.3 meters |
| Drive: | 4 propellers, driven by 4 steam turbines; 120,000 shaft horsepower |
| Crew: | circa 1500 |
The USS Macon (CA-132) was a heavy cruiser of the United States Navy and was part of the Baltimore-class at. It was named after the city of Macon , Georgia .
history
The Macon was laid down at New York Shipbuilding in 1943 and launched around 16 months later. The official commissioning was on August 26, 1945.
After initial test drives, the Macon served as a test ship for experimental equipment that was retrofitted in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard . Among other things, it received an elevated landing platform for helicopters from 1948, but this did not prove itself and therefore never reached series production: it narrowed the sweep angle of the aft turret too much. In addition, the cruiser was used as a training ship for reserve personnel, in 1948 a training voyage for midshipmen led the ship to Europe. On April 12, 1950, it was finally decommissioned and added to the reserve fleet in Philadelphia .
However, when the Korean War broke out in the immediate aftermath and operations there put a heavy strain on the US Navy, the Macon was reactivated very quickly on October 16, 1950. After the test drives, she was used as the flagship of Cruiser Division 6 in the Atlantic. The cruiser moved annually to the Mediterranean until 1959, including being on site during the Suez Crisis in 1956 . In addition, new equipment was tested on board. A launch system for the cruise missile SSM-N-8A Regulus was installed at the beginning of 1956 and remained there for the rest of the service period. During the last Mediterranean voyage, the Macon also rescued the crew of the Italian freighter Maria Amata , which caught fire .
In January 1960, the ship made one last voyage to South America and was placed in reserve again on March 10, 1961 and completely deleted from the Naval Vessel Register on November 1, 1969 . In 1973 the ship was dismantled and then transferred to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory , where the steel was used for testing purposes.
Web links
- Macon in DANFS (Engl.)