USS Salem (CA-139)
_underway_in_May_1949.jpg)
USS Salem underway in May 1949
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | Salem |
| Namesake: | Salem, Massachusetts |
| Ordered: | 14 June 1943 |
| Builder: | Bethlehem Steel Co.'s Fore River Shipyard |
| Laid down: | 4 July 1945 |
| Launched: | 25 March 1947 |
| Commissioned: | 14 May 1949 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 January 1959 |
| Struck: | 7 December 1991 |
| Identification: | Hull symbol: CA-139 |
| Status: | Museum ship in Quincy, Massachusetts |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Des Moines-class heavy cruiser |
| Displacement: | 17,000 tons standard, 21,500 tons full load |
| Length: | 717 ft (219 m) |
| Beam: | 77 ft (23 m) |
| Draft: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Propulsion: | 4 shaft; General Electric turbines; 4 Babcock & Wilcox boilers 615 psi/850 f; 120,000 shp (89,000 kW) at full power. |
| Speed: | 33 knots (38 mph; 61 km/h) |
| Range: | 10,500 nmi (19,400 km; 12,100 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement: | 1,799 officers and enlisted |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
SG-6 air search, SPS-8A height finding, SPS-12 air search, Turrets 2 and 3 were originally equipped with dual Mark 27 ranging radars, which were ultimately removed. |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 1 utility helicopter, originally designed for 2 float planes on catapults |
| Aviation facilities: | Designed for two catapults aft (not equipped at completion) with hangar in hold, accessed by elevator |
The third USS Salem (CA-139) is one of three Des Moines-class heavy cruisers completed for the United States Navy shortly after World War II. Commissioned in 1949, she was the world's last heavy cruiser to enter service and the only one still in existence. She was decommissioned in 1959, after serving in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. She is open to the public as a museum ship in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Salem was laid down on 4 July 1945 by the Bethlehem Steel Co.'s Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Mass.; launched on 25 March 1947; sponsored by Miss Mary G. Coffey; and commissioned on 14 May 1949, Captain J. C. Daniel in command. Her main battery held the world's first automatic 8" guns and were the first 8" naval guns to use cased ammunition instead of shell and bag loading.
After a visit to Salem, Mass., on 4 July 1949, Salem underwent three months of shakedown at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, between July and October 1949, followed by post-shakedown repairs at the Boston Navy Yard. She then made two cruises to Guantanamo in November and December 1949, and participated in maneuvers with the Atlantic Fleet in early 1950.
Salem departed the east coast on 3 May 1950; and, on 17 May, relieved Newport News (CA-148) as flagship of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. During this, the first of seven deployments to the Mediterranean as fleet flagship, Salem visited ports in Malta, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, and Algeria, and participated in training exercises. On 22 September, she was relieved by Newport News and returned to the United States.
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