America (CVA 66) - Naval Cruise Book

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J.H. ARTHUR

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USS AMERICA (CVA-66) —commissioned January 23, 1965! After more than 200 years of maritime history, with many vessels having sailed under the name, America , the United States Ship America became the first warship so named to be commissioned into the fleet of the United States Navy. She is a capable ship. Her identity has been established by the officers and men who serve her. The first America, intended to be the great- est warship of the fledging Revolutionary Navy, just missed on every count. Her keel was laid in 1777, a 74 gun ship of the line, but lack of funds and skilled shipbuilders delayed construction in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, until 1782. In the latter stages of construction. Continental Congress assigned John Paul Jones to be her prospective commanding officer, and he undertook the job of fitting her out only to be denied her command for. just a few months before her launching, Congress presented the ship to France to replace the Magnif ique which had been lost by grounding in Boston Harbor. Thus the first America joined the French Navy in 1783. Though other ships have borne the name America since that day, there has always been something missing. All of the Americas have served ably, from the schooner yacht built in 1851 for Commodore John C. Stevens to the luxury liner. The schooner won the first America Cup Race. The Confederacy obtained her during the Civil War and pressed her into service as a blockade runner — she was re- taken by Federal forces and served the Union as a blockader. In 1921 she was assigned to the U. S. Naval Academy. Another namesake was the twin-screw steamship Amerika built in Ireland in 1905 for the Hamburg-American Line. She was taken into the U. S. Navy service in 1917 as a troop transport and renamed America, and by 1921 was back in passenger service with the United States Lines, retiring in 1931, but was pulled out of retirement in 1941 and put into service as an Army troop transport. The beautiful United States Line passenger liner SS AMERICA was converted to a troop transport to serve in World War II under the name West Point. After the war, she was re- converted to a passenger liner with the United States Lines, and in 1964 sold to foreign ship- ping interests and named Austrailis. In 1964, alongside the liner at the pier at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. in Virginia was docked a magnificent steel structure. After more than 200 years, the name and the ship were finally united in defense of the country whose name she so proudly bears.