USS Salem (CA-139)

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USS Salem (CA-139)
period of service Naval war flag
Keel laying: 4th July 1945
Launch: March 25, 1947
Commissioning: May 14, 1949
Decommissioning: January 30, 1959
Technical specifications
Length: 218.39 m
Width: 23.2 m
Draft: 6.71 m
Standard displacement: 17,000 ts
maximum displacement: 21,500 ts
Drive: 4 screws each with a General Electric steam turbine and a Babcock & Wilcox steam boiler, power: 120,000 hp
Maximum speed 33 kn (61.12 km / h)
Armament:
  • 9 × 8 "(20.3 cm) guns
    in three triplet turrets
  • 12x 5 "(12.7 cm) guns
    in 6 twin turrets
  • 22 × (originally 24 ×) 3 "(7.62 cm) guns
    in 11 (originally 12) twin mounts
Crew: 1799 officers and men

The third USS Salem (CA-139) is the second of three completed Des Moines class ships of the United States Navy , alongside the USS Des Moines (CA-134) and the USS Newport News (CA-148) . She was keeled on July 4, 1945 at Bethlehem Steel in the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy , Massachusetts , launched on March 25, 1947, and entered service on May 14, 1949. She did not take part in any armed conflict, but worked in her ten years of service as the flagship of the 6th fleet stationed in the Mediterranean and temporarily the 2nd fleet in the Atlantic . In the former role she took part in some NATO exercises and was able to prove herself several times, e.g. B. 1953 for disaster relief after the earthquake on Kefalonia and Zakynthos in 1953 in the Ionian Sea , where the Salem was the first US ship to be on site, also during the Suez crisis in 1956 and as US support for the Jordanian government during a phase of great danger of overthrow in 1957 .

During her tenure, the Salem has also hosted celebrities such as the US Ambassador to Spain , John D. Lodge ; Thomas S. Gates , Undersecretary of the Navy, Department of Defense ; Admiral Arleigh A. Burke , Chief of Naval Operations ; the Shah of Persia ; the Lebanese President and the Greek royal couple.

After being deactivated in 1959, the Salem was moored as part of the Fleet Reserve in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania for a long time before it was finally struck off the US Navy registers on July 12, 1991. On October 13, 1994, the Salem was transferred to Quincy, Massachusetts to the United States Naval and Shipbuilding Museum to serve as its centerpiece. It can be visited there today.

useful information

1956 turned Salem the Admiral Graf Spee in the British feature film The Battle of the River Plate (The Battle of the River Plate) . The ships significantly differ in their appearance. The main artillery of the German ironclad consisted of only two, but that of the USS Salem of three triplet turrets.

Explanations

  1. ↑ 9 further units of the class (CA-140 to CA-143 and CA-149 to CA-153) had been ordered, but were canceled again in 1945 and 1946, as there was no longer any need.

swell

  • Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Vol. IV.Washington, DC: Naval History Division, 1969.

Web links

Commons : USS Salem  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 42 ° 14 ′ 38.6 ″  N , 70 ° 58 ′ 11.6 ″  W.