Guided Missile Cruiser: USS Long Beach

[designeraccd]

The first USN nuke powered cruiser caught my attention, way back when, as the "artist rendering" of her proposed look appeared in Jane's. Combining nuke power plus the latest in missiles and radars really seemed almost sci-fi back in 1958-59 to my young eyes.

As she emerged from the yard with her "block" of a bridge house and a super-duper radar (shared only with the ENTERPRISE) having fixed antennas on all 4 sides...WOW!!
She certainly looked unlike anything else afloat at the time....... DFO

[DonBoyer]

Long Beach was one of our escorts during one of Bon Homme Richard's deployments to the Tonkin Gulf. A sleek and graceful sailing ship despite the somewhat ungainly square bridge. Here's a photo taken in San Diego in 1984.

USS LONG BEACH.SAN DIEGO.12.1984.jpg

[Brian James]

Guided Missile Cruiser USS Long Beach pictured in the Gulf of Oman,November 1967.

[DonBoyer]

And, despite the "blocky"-looking bridge structure the ship was quite graceful at speed at sea. I'm sure docking in a cross-wind might have been a tad problematic sometimes. When I was on Yankee Station we had the Long Beach for an escort on one deployment. She could change station quicker than any other big ship I've seen at sea.

This view of Long Beach with St. Paul and Chicago at Subic Bay in 1965 is how I remember her.

USS LONG BEACH.ST. PAUL.CHICAGO.SUBIC.1965.jpg

[designeraccd]

That BIG BOX of a bridge house was certainly distinctive! Very graceful hull lines tho. Overall a very interesting design. DFO

[DonBoyer]

Some of my favorite views of Long Beach and one not so favorite.

Fitting out at Quincy, 2 June 1961.

USS LONG BEACH.FITTING OUT.QUINCY.6.2.1961.jpg

In the Gulf of Oman, ca. November 1987.

USS LONG BEACH.GULF OF OMAN.11.1987.jpg

Off Oahu, 9 May 1973.

USS LONG BEACH.OFF OAHU.5.9.1973.jpg

San Diego, December 1984.

USS LONG BEACH.SAN DIEGO.12.1984.jpg

Last scraps of Long Beach at Bremerton.

USS LONG BEACH.SCRAPPING.jpg

[designeraccd]

The LONG BEACH outfitting shot is really nice! I hadn't seen that one before.

Here is a 1961 view of CAG CANBERRA, her missiles really don't show but those BIG 8 inchers sure do!! However, the low stern view shows off her old Terriers DFO

[Brian James]

One of Class....Nuclear powered Guided Missile Cruiser USS Long Beach pictured under construction,on the ways at Bethlehem Steel Company Shipyards,Fore River,Quincy,Massachusetts,July 2nd 1959...to the right is Farragut Class Guided Missile Destroyer USS MacDonough.

[designeraccd]

This 1950s sleek nuke cruiser always fascinated me. Nothing else afloat at the time even remotely looked like her! A sci-fi looking cruiser based on early renderings in Janes. Those renderings illustrated an even sleeker ship than was actually built, due to the radar that only she and ENTERPRISE shared. Altho with no guns.....at first. USN did discover that 100 % reliance on missiles was not very viable given the electronics of the time.

When I became a CW Radar Repair tech in the CORPS and the delicate complexity of a static, land mounted SAM system became apparent to me.....the 100% reliance on ship based SAMs for defense......uhh...well, good luck. Still, under good conditions she did prove she could BITE at long range from the sea to a target over NVN!! DFO

[Brian James]

Nuclear powered Guided Missile Cruiser USS Long Beach,the world's first nuclear powered surface combatant pictured fitting out at Bethlehem Steel Company Fore River Shipyards,Quincy,Massachusetts in June 1961.