USS Belknap (CG-26)
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USS Belknap (CG-26)
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | Belknap |
| Namesake: |
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| Ordered: | 16 May 1961 |
| Builder: | Bath Iron Works |
| Laid down: | 5 February 1962 |
| Launched: | 20 July 1963 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. Leonard B. Cresswell, the grand-daughter and daughter of the RADMs Belknap |
| Acquired: | 4 November 1964 |
| Commissioned: | 7 November 1964 |
| Decommissioned: | 20 December 1975 |
| Recommissioned: | May 1980 |
| Decommissioned: | 15 February 1995 |
| Reclassified: | CG-26 on 30 June 1975 |
| Struck: | 15 December 1995 |
| Fate: |
Sunk as target on 24 SEP 1998 036° 31' 00.3" North 071° 58' 00.5" West 2050 fathoms |
| Badge: | _Badge.jpg){kind=icon} |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Belknap-class cruiser |
| Displacement: | 8957 tons |
| Length: | 547 ft (167 m) |
| Beam: | 55 ft (17 m) |
| Draft: | 31 ft (9.4 m) (maximum navigational) |
| Propulsion: | Two sets GE or De laval steam turbines. total 85,000 shp (63 MW) |
| Speed: | maximum speed 34 knots (63 km/h) |
| Complement: | 64 officers and 546 enlisted |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Electronic warfare & decoys: |
AN/SLQ-32 |
| Armament: |
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Sunk as target on 24 SEP 1998 036° 31' 00.3" North 071° 58' 00.5" West
USS Belknap (DLG-26/CG-26), named for Rear Admirals George E. Belknap (1832–1903) and Reginald Rowan Belknap (1871–1959), was the lead ship of her class of guided missile cruisers in the United States Navy. She was launched as DLG-26, a guided missile frigate under the then-current designation system, and reclassified as CG-26 on 30 June 1975.
Belknap, the first of a new class of guided missile frigates, was laid down by the Bath Iron Works Corporation at Bath in Maine on 5 February 1962 She was christened by Mrs. Leonard B. Cresswell, the granddaughter and daughter of the RADMs Belknap and was launched by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine on 20 July 1963 and commissioned on 7 November 1964.
Belknap was severely damaged in a collision with the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1975 off the coast of Sicily. A fire broke out on Belknap following the collision, and during the fire her aluminium superstructure was melted, burned, and gutted to the deck level. Seven sailors were killed on Belknap and one on John F. Kennedy.
Shortly after the fire began, boats from other vessels operating with John F. Kennedy and Belknap began to pull alongside the burning ship, often with complete disregard for their own safety. The guided missile destroyer Claude V. Ricketts and destroyer Bordelon moved in on both sides of Belknap, their men directing fire hoses into the amidships area that the stricken ship’s crew could not reach. Ironically, Bordelon would also be badly damaged in a collision with Kennedy the following year which forced her removal from service. Claude V. Ricketts moved in and secured alongside Belknap’s port side, and evacuated the injured while fragments from exploding ammunition showered down upon her weather decks. The frigate Pharris closed in the carrier’s starboard side to provide fire-fighting assistance. Ammunition from Belknap’s three-inch ready storage locker, located amidships, cooked off, hurling fiery fragments into the air and splashing around the rescue boats. Undaunted, the rescuers pulled out the seriously wounded and delivered fire-fighting supplies to the sailors who refused to surrender their ship to the conflagration.
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Wikipedia