Des Moines-class cruiser

The Des Moines class was a group of three United States Navy heavy cruisers commissioned in 1948 and 1949, the last of the all-gun heavy cruisers. They were derived from the Baltimore class, with a better machinery layout, improved torpedo protection and a heavier anti-aircraft battery, and they mounted nine of the first auto-loading 8-inch guns in the Mark 16 design, which let each barrel fire eight to ten rounds a minute, about twice the rate of earlier heavy cruisers. Twelve ships were planned and only three were completed. Des Moines and Salem were built at the Bethlehem yard at Quincy, Massachusetts, while Newport News Shipbuilding built the third ship, Newport News, as its yard number 456, and USS Dallas was cancelled when about 28 percent complete. Newport News served until 1975, was the United States Second Fleet flagship from 1962 to 1968 and gave gunfire support off Vietnam from 1967 to 1973, and in 1972 an in-bore explosion disabled one of her turrets. Salem is preserved as a museum ship at Quincy, while Des Moines and Newport News were scrapped.