Days til WTD9 2011
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,614
Likes: 11
From: Northern VA
South Dakota Class (BB-49 through BB-54)
1918-1919 Building Programs. Construction cancelled in 1922.
The six battleships of the South Dakota class were slower but more heavily armed and armored contemporaries of the Lexington class battle cruisers. All were laid down in 1920 and 1921, only to be suspended under the terms of the Naval Limitations Treaty in February 1922 when they were between 11% and 38% completed. All six remained on the building ways until October-November 1923, when they were sold for scrapping.
Iowa (BB-53). Fiscal year 1919 program. Keel laid at Newport News, Virginia, in May 1920. Construction cancelled and the ship was scrapped on the building ways.
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,614
Likes: 11
From: Northern VA
USS Grapple (ARS-53) is a Safeguard-class salvage ship in the United States Navy. She is homeported in Norfolk, Virginia. In 2000, she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the Atlantic Fleet.
Rescue and salvage ships render assistance to disabled ships, provide towing, salvage, diving, firefighting and heavy lift capabilities.
The mission of the rescue and salvage ships is fourfold: to debeach stranded vessels, heavy lift capability from ocean depths, towing of other vessels, and manned diving operations. For rescue missions, these ships are equipped with fire monitors forward and amidships which can deliver either firefighting foam or sea water. The salvage holds of these ships are outfitted with portable equipment to provide assistance to other vessels in dewatering, patching, supply of electrical power and other essential service required to return a disabled ship to an operating condition.
The Navy has responsibility for salvaging U.S. government-owned ships and, when it is in the best interests of the United States, privately owned vessels as well. The rugged construction of these steel-hulled ships, combined with speed and endurance, make these rescue and salvage ships well-suited for rescue/salvage operations of Navy and commercial shipping throughout the world. The versatility of this class of ship enables the U.S. Navy to render assistance to those in peril on the high seas.
