The Ship · Reference

Chronology & specifications

The data of the hull — collected here, after her people, because it is the least of what she was.

USS Newport News (CA-148) on 31 January 1949, two days after commissioning — a clean broadside view showing her three-gun turrets, twin funnels, and the aircraft catapult fitted aft — Two days after commissioning, 31 January 1949 — the catapult still fitted aft, everything ahead of her. U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships photograph, public domain.

Chronology

1 Nov 1945
Laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia.
6 Mar 1947
Launched; sponsored by Mrs. Homer L. Ferguson.
29 Jan 1949
Commissioned, Captain Roland N. Smoot commanding; homeport Norfolk.
1950–1961
Annual Mediterranean deployments with the Sixth Fleet; fleet exercises and midshipman training cruises in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic.
Sep 1957
On station in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Syrian crisis.
Mar 1960
Ordered from 75 miles northeast of Sicily to earthquake-stricken Agadir, Morocco: 1,225 miles in 40.5 hours at an average 31 knots; arrived 3 March to provide medical and material aid.
4 Jun 1961
Underway on short notice after the assassination of General Trujillo; held station in international waters off the Dominican Republic, then trained off Puerto Rico before returning to Norfolk.
Winter 1962
Berthing and communications rebuilt to carry Commander, Second Fleet, and staff — she became the Second Fleet flagship.
Aug 1962
NATO Exercise RIPTIDE III; month-long tour of northern European ports as flagship of Commander Striking Fleet Atlantic.
Oct–Nov 1962
Underway 22 October for the Cuban Quarantine; a month on station northeast of Cuba as ComSecondFlt flagship, then assisted in the missile count; home to Norfolk the day before Thanksgiving.
Apr–May 1965
Sortied 29 April for Santo Domingo as flagship of Commander, Joint Task Force 122, until the task force dissolved 7 May; June alterations at Norfolk.
Sep–Oct 1967
Second Fleet flag shifted to Springfield 1 September; departed Norfolk 5 September for Southeast Asia; arrived Da Nang 9 October as ComCruDesFlot 3 flagship and fired her 8-inch rifles in anger for the first time that night — Operation Sea Dragon. Interdiction fire north of the DMZ and gunfire support in South Vietnam followed.
Apr–May 1968
Departed Subic Bay 21 April; reached Norfolk 13 May via the Panama Canal.
May–Dec 1972
On the gun line off Quang Tri City from 11 May. In the first hour of 1 October an in-bore explosion in the center gun of Turret No. 2 killed twenty sailors and injured thirty-six (The Twenty). The damaged gun was removed at Cubi Point, its port plated over; she returned to firing missions 21 October, worked two more gunline periods, and reached Norfolk 24 December.
27 Jun 1975
Decommissioned — the Navy's last conventional cruiser in service.
31 Jul 1978
Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register; held in the reserve fleet at Philadelphia with her sisters.
25 Feb 1993
Sold to Southern Scrap Material Co., New Orleans, and scrapped.

DANFS gives her laid-down and launch dates as 1 November 1945 and 6 March 1948; the contemporary record — United Press and Associated Press stories dated 6–7 March 1947 and the Navy's own All Hands magazine that April — dates the launch 6 March 1947, and her keel date of 1 November 1945 is confirmed by the same wire stories and the Naval Vessel Register (the commissioning program's 1 October 1945 stands alone). This site carries 1947; the conflict and its resolution are set out on About & Sources.

Three heavy cruisers in the Philadelphia reserve fleet, April 1980 — USS Newport News, USS Salem, and USS Des Moines moored together in mothballs, viewed from the water across their starboard bows — Philadelphia reserve fleet, April 1980 — *Newport News*, *Salem*, and *Des Moines* in mothballs. Official U.S. Navy photograph 428-GX-K-128499, National Archives, public domain.

The stripped hull of USS Newport News (CA-148) moored at Southern Scrap Material Company, New Orleans, in 1993 — superstructure cut away, awaiting final dismantling — New Orleans, 1993 — stripped for the breakers. *Salem*, visible in her Philadelphia photograph above, is the sister that survived. U.S. Navy photo DN-SC-93-04169 by OS2 John Bouvia, public domain.

Specifications

Class	Des Moines-class heavy cruiser
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia
Laid down	1 November 1945
Launched	6 March 1947
Commissioned	29 January 1949
Decommissioned	27 June 1975
Stricken	31 July 1978
Fate	Sold for scrapping 25 February 1993, Southern Scrap Material Co., New Orleans
Displacement	20,980 tons
Length	717 feet 6 inches
Beam	76 feet 6 inches
Draft	27 feet
Speed	31.5 knots
Propulsion	4 boilers; 4 geared steam turbines; approximately 120,000 shaft horsepower; 4 shafts
Armament	9 × 8-inch rifles (three triple turrets); 12 × 5-inch; 12 × 3-inch
Complement	1,667 (design complement)

Specifications and chronology from the ship's Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry (Atlas record ev-03), with 1972 gunline detail from USNI Proceedings and the Virtual Wall. No public hull materials survey or scrapping hazmat disclosure for the 1993 dismantling has been located; the searches run are logged in the Atlas record's search ledger (ev-06). All sources on About & Sources.