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| This site is dedicated to the USS SALEM, one of three completed Heavy Cruisers of the Des Moines class. The other two completed ships of this class were the USS DES MOINES (CA-134) and the USS NEWPORT NEWS (CA-148). These 3 ships were the last and the largest heavy cruisers ever built, and at 717 feet long and 77 feet wide, were longer than some battleships of the period. They were three feet shy of two NFL football fields in length and would dwarf the modern Ticonderoga class cruisers at 565 feet long and 55 feet wide. |
| The SALEM was laid down on July 4, 1945 during WW II, but the events of a month later which ended the war, precluded her contributing to the war effort. Nevertheless, her construction was continued, although at a slower pace than if constructed during the war. She was completed and launched on March 25, 1947, and commissioned on May 14, 1949. For the 10 years she was in service, she never fired her guns in anger. On January 30, 1959, she was decommissioned and spent the next 35 years languishing in the reserve fleet at Philadelphia, PA. In 1994 she was acquired through the efforts of the USS SALEM Association and the city of Quincy, Massachusetts to serve as a floating museum in the former Bethlehem Steel Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, where she was built and launched 47 years before. |
| Of her two sister ships, both the NEWPORT NEWS and DES MOINES are no more, the NEWPORT NEWS having been scrapped in 1993-1994, and the DES MOINES being scrapped in 2006. |
| The SALEM has its own official website and hosts the "United States Naval and Shipbuilding Museum and USS SALEM" in Quincy, MA. You can view the site at: http://www.uss-salem.org/ |
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Other than Boot Camp at NTC-Bainbridge, MD and Class A Metalsmith School at Norfolk, VA, this was my only duty station in my 3 years and 5 months in the US Navy ( I was a 'Kiddie Cruiser'; enlist at age 17, discharge before 21st birthday). |
| Most of the color pictures appearing on these pages were taken at the USS SALEM Association reunion on August 8th, 1998, at the SALEM's berth in Quincy, Massachusetts, when I stepped back on her deck for the first time in 40 years. |
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The entire contents of
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Rob Mackie's "
SteelNavy"
site has more 1998 SALEM pictures
Visit the Official US Navy site.
Click on the anchor
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Site hosted by
A1WEBSERVER.COM
William E.
Schnakenberg SFM-2
