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Guided Missile Cruiser
DLG 26 / CG 26 - USS Belknap
		USS Belknap (CG 26)						US Navy photo
Type, Class:		Guided Missile Cruiser; Belknap - class; built as DLG 26; redesignated to CG 26: June 30, 1975;
Builder:		Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, USA
STATUS:		Awarded: May 18, 1961 Laid down: February 5, 1962 (as DLG 26) Launched: July 20, 1963 (as DLG 26) Commissioned: November 7, 1964 (as DLG 26) Redesignated CG 26: June 30, 1975 Decommissioned: February 15, 1995; Fate: Sunk as target on September 24, 1998 off the east coast of the United States. Location is 036° 31' 00.3" North, 071° 58' 00.5" West.
Homeport:		-
Namesake:		Rear Admiral George Eugene Belknap (1832 – 1903)
Ship’s Motto:		-
Technical Data: (Measures, Propulsion, Armament, Aviation, etc.)		see: INFO >> Guided Missile Cruiser / Belknap – Class
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George Eugene Belknap
Photo credits: US Navy, US Naval Historical Center
Namesake & History:
Rear Admiral George Eugene Belknap (January 22, 1832 – April 7, 1903):
George Eugene Belknap, Naval Officer, born in Newport, New Hampshire, 22 January 1832. He was appointed Midshipman from New Hampshire, 7 October 1847; became passed Midshipman, 10 June 1853, master in 1855; was commissioned Lieutenant, 16 September 1855 ; Lieutenant Commander, 15 July 1862; Commander, 25 July 1866; Commodore, 2 March 1885; and Rear Admiral, 1889; Belknap's Civil War experience began as lieutenant commander and executive officer of the ironclad steam frigate New Ironsides, in the South Atlantic blockading squadron (July 1862 - September 1864). His next command was the steam gunboat Seneca. In November 1864, Belknap was assigned command of the ironclad steamer Copernicus, of the "monitor" class. Belknap commanded Copernicus as a part of Rear Admiral D. Porter's attacks against Fort Fisher, North Carolina, and then as part of Rear Admiral J.A.B. Dahlgren's fleet off Charleston (SC). On February 18, 1865 Belknap and other officers accompanied Dahlgren into the city of Charleston. After the Civil War, Belknap commanded the Hartford in the Asiatic squadron. He was also part of an expedition sent to put down "the savages of southern Formosa". He was then assigned shore duty in Boston and New York, but in 1872 - 1873 took command of the Tuscarora. The ship was part of a team sent to the Isthmus of Panama to study a projected route across Central America, and Belknap's seamen and marines were landed to protect travelers across the Isthmus while a revolution raged. A few months later the Tuscarora was assigned to making deep sea soundings between the west coast of the United States and Japan as part of deciding whether laying a submarine cable between the USA and Japan would be possible. Off the east coast of Japan the Tuscarora discovered one of the deepest and longest of ocean troughs; the trough is named the Tuscarora Deep, in honor of Belknap's pioneering discovery. Belknap's deep sea explorations received good press not only in his home country, but in England and France as well. In 1881 Belknap commanded the Alaska in a series of deep sea soundings off the coasts of Chile and Peru. He was made a commodore in 1885, and in 1886 was made commandant of the U.S. Navy Yard at Mare Island, California. In 1889 Belknap was promoted to rear admiral. Belknap commanded the Asiatic squadron until 1892, when he was forced to retire at age sixty, after forty-five years of active duty. From 1894 until his death Belknap was president of the Board of Commissioners of the Massachusetts Nautical Training School. He died at Key West, Florida, April 7, 1903.
USS Belknap (DLG 26 / CG 26):
USS Belknap (DLG-26/CG-26), named for Rear Admiral George Eugene Belknap USN (1832-1903), was the lead ship of her class of guided missile cruisers in the United States Navy. She was launched as DLG-26, a Destroyer Leader, and reclassified to Guided Missile Cruiser (CG) on 30 June 1975. She was laid down by the Bath Iron Works Corporation at Bath in Maine on 5 February 1962, launched on 20 July 1963 and commissioned on 7 November 1964. On November 22, 1975 USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) and USS Belknap collide in rough seas at night during air exercises east of Sicily. The overhanging flight deck of the carrier cuts into the superstructure of the cruiser. A fire broke out on Belknap following the collision, and during the fire her aluminum superstructure was melted, burned and gutted to the deck level. This fire and the resultant damage and deaths, which would have been preventable had Belknap's superstructure been made of steel, drove the US Navy's decision to pursue all-steel construction in its next major class of surface combatants. Because of the presence of nuclear weapons on board both ships the commander of Carrier Striking Forces for the Sixth Fleet sent a secret nuclear weapons accident message (a "Broken Arrow") to the Pentagon, warning of the "high probability that nuclear weapons aboard the Belknap (W45 Terrier missile warheads) were involved in fire and explosion but there were no direct communications with the Belknap at that time and no positive indications that explosions were directly related to nuclear weapons. An hour after the Broken Arrow message was sent the USS Claude V. Ricketts (DDG 5), alongside the Belknap fighting the fire, reported that Belknap personnel said "no radiation hazard exists aboard". Seven people aboard Belknap and one aboard the Kennedy are killed. The sailor aboard the Kennedy died from smoke inhalation when he entered a smoke filled compartment without an OBA. Both ships got assistance from other ships: Belknap had three other ships helping her and the JFK had one. Belknap was reconstructed by the Philadelphia Navy Yard from 30 January 1976 to 10 May 1980. USS Belknap was converted to a flagship by the Norfolk Navy Yard from May 1985 to February 1986. She played again a role in the Malta Summit between US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev on 2 and 3 December 1989. The US President had his sleeping quarters aboard the Belknap, whereas the meetings took place (due to the stormy weather) on the soviet cruise ship Maxim Gorky. Belknap was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 February 1995 and sunk as a target on 24 September 1998. > more ship’s history wanted …
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