Boston (CAG 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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HFSYS' wa- commissioned the United States lt takes more than one year to give a ship that CAN D0 Spirit . . . it takes a heritage, a history, the tradition of a fighting ship The city of Boston, Massachusetts has pro- vided the name for five completely different vessels of the United States Navy beginning with the United States Sloop Boston in 1776. The history of the first Boston is brief since its services were used only during the privateer stage of the Revolutionary War at sea. When the Revolution actively became war, the United States Navy consisted only of a handful of sloops, privately owned vessels loaned to the government for service against the great British fleet. The first Boston was one of these. The second and third Bostons came shortly afterward and were built from the keel up as men of war. The second ship to bear the Boston THE BOSTON FRlGATE'S ENGAGEMENT WITH THE FRENCH CORVETTE LE BERCEAU A The American Frigate, from Boston she came, Guns mounted thirty-two, the BOSTON by name, Turn to the West lndies, our orders run so, But on our passage, we met a proud foe. On the twelfth of October to sail we espy'd, The one being a schooner to windward she ply'd, We follow soon after for an hour or more, But the other being larger, we down on her bore. , We chac'd her for hours, our guns being clear, All hands call'd to quarters, close to herwe bear, Our bow guns being levell'd, on her we did play, Which made this bold Frenchman to immediately stay. Then our Captain stepped fonivard and hail'd with a frown, To the United States flag haul your colours down. No, no says the Captain, and loudly did cry, That never can be sir, until that we try. Then we gave him a broadside for to make him strike, But fully determined they were for to fight. Twenty-four guns she mounted, and on us did play, Our braces and rigging they soon shot away. Then they made all their sail from us to get clear, We refitted our braces after them we did steer, A And when we came up it was eleven at night, We show'd them such play that we made them to strike. O 'twas early next morning our Captain then spoke, c Their vessel was shattered, their mast it was brokeg We took her in tow, and for Boston did steer, V ' ' Where among pretty girls we will drown all our care. So now my brave boys, it's to Boston we're bound, - Where the full bowls of punch shall go merrily 'round, Here's health to Captain Little, and officers too, Not forgetting the seamen that were valiant and true. This poem celebrates the victory of the United States Frigate Boston over the French Corvette Le Berceau on Ogggber 12th and 13th, 1800 during the French Warl of name was , , Frigate Boston in 1776 and served- until 1779 in the War of the Revolution. Following her came the second United States Frigate Boston, the third ship of the fleet to bear that name. ' The third Boston earned her greatest dis- tinction under the command of Captain John Little late in the Revolution when, in company with the U.S. Frigate Hancock, she captured the feared British Frigate Fox. She served again in the French War of 1800 and was im- mortalized by a poem written to celebrate her victory over the French Corvette Le Berceau on October 12th and 13th, 1800. The next Boston was not to join the fleet for nearly a century. The United States Steel Cruiser Boston, one of the first all steel men of war, joined the American Fleet in 1889 and saw service in the Spanish American War and part of World War One. The naval disarmament between World Wars One and Two perhaps had a great deal to do with the fact that the next Boston did not appear for so long. When the aging fleet of battleships and cruisers was largely destroyed at Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States undertook the greatest shipbuilding program in all history. The present USS BOSTON was part of that program. Plans for her were con- ceived in 1942, she was laid down in 1942, and completed in late 1943. As a heavy cruiser capable of surface, shore, and air-assault and defense, she was sent to join the growing U.S. Pacific Fleet in the Island War against the Japanese. There she participated in the battle for the Marianas, the battle for the Marshalls, the invasion of Iwo Jima, the battle of the Phillipines, the battle for Okinawa, and the final assaults on the Japanese home islands. .At the completion of the war, the BOSTON, with hundreds of other modern fighting ships, was mothballed and sent to the reserve fleet in Bremerton, Washington near Seattle. During peace, war, or cold war, the develop- ment of new weapons seldom ceases, and the advent of the Terrier ship-to-air guided missile brought BOSTON once again into the fleet. ln 1953, BOSTON was taken out of mothballs in Bremerton and towed to shipyard in Phila- delphia for conversion to the first guided missile cruiser in the world. ln many ways, the present.BOSTON, a result of that conversion, is the sixth ship of the fleet to bear her name. True, she s-hares the same hull as the World War ll cruiser, but her modern design and weapons capabilities make her virtually a sepa- rate ship. The conversion, completed in Novem- ber, 1955, made BOSTON the most modern warship in the world. As CAG 1, she still sup- Hggtts a mighty role in today's modern mobile