Ships named for Iowa, her towns and residents: U.S.S. Des Moines CA-134
CA-134 USS Des Moines (US Navy Photo)
I started last week showing some of Iowa’s namesake ships, and the efforts by one of two groups to save her as a museum.
Unlike the USS Iowa, the USS Des Moines has little of the fame her bigger sister had.
CA-134 USS Des Moines had it’s start on May 28th of 1945 just as the war in Europe was coming to an end. She was the first of 4 heavy cruisers that were to be of the Des Moines class. (The USS Iowa also had 4 sister ships of the Iowa class.) The Des Moines was launched on September 27, 1946, too late to be a part of WWII as she was designed to take on Japanese cruisers.
The Des Moines was officially commissioned on November 17, 1948. Once commissioned, she initially served out of Newport, Rhode Island. By 1950 she was sailing out of Norfolk, Virginia and was used in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, North Atlantic and the East Coast of the US. Between 1949 and 1957 she was the flagship of the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean for 7 years.
In 1958 she once again left Norfolk on her way to Mediterranean where she once again took her place as the flagship of the 6th fleet until her decommissioning in 1961. There she was placed in mothballs at Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Philadelphia until 2006. A group in Milwaukee Wisconsin attempted to save her and turn her into a museum ship, but their efforts failed and she was towed to Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping. By July of 2007 she had been completely scrapped with the exception of two dual 5″ gun mounts that were donated to the USS Lexington museum in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The Des Moines had been 716 ft. long and carried a compliment of nine 8″ guns and a crew of 1,799 officers and crewmen. She was capable of doing 33 knots and had a range of over 10,000 miles.
The Des Moines may be gone as well as her sister ship, USS Newport News (CA-148), but the 3rd ship of the class, the USS Salem (CA-139) is a museum ship in Quincy, Massachusetts. The USS Dallas was cancelled (CA-140) in 1946, as well as 8 others of the class, at the end of WWII.
