USS Hull (DD 945)

- decommissioned -
- sunk as a target -

USS HULL was one of the FORREST SHERMAN - class destroyers and the fifth ship in the Navy named after Commodore Isaac Hull. In the mid-1970s, the USS HULL was the Navy's test platform for the Mk-71 8-inch gun. The Mk-71 gun project was later cancelled. Decommissioned on July 11, 1983, and stricken from the Navy list on October 15, 1983, the USS HULL was finally disposed of as a target on April 7, 1998, off the coast of southern California at 032° 35' 00.9" North, 120° 32' 00.3" West.

General Characteristics:	Keel laid: 1956
	Launched: August 10, 1957
	Commissioned: July 3, 1958
	Decommissioned: July 11, 1983
	Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
	Propulsion system: four-1200 lb. boilers; two steam turbines; two shafts
	Propellers: two
	Length: 418.3 feet (127.5 meters)
	Beam: 45,3 feet (13.8 meters)
	Draft: 22 feet (6.7 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 4,000 tons full load
	Speed: 32+ knots
	Aircraft: none
	Armament: three Mk-42 5-inch/54 caliber guns, Mk-32 ASW torpedo tubes (two triple mounts)
	Crew: 17 officers, 275 enlisted

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS HULL. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

Click here to view the list.

go to the end of the page

Click here to see which USS HULL memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

go to the end of the page

Accidents aboard USS HULL:

Date	Where	Events
June 3, 1973	San Diego, Calif.	USS HULL suffers a minor fire in an air conditioning unit while in port at San Diego.

go to the end of the page

About the Ship's Name:

Isaac Hull was born in Derby, Connecticut, on 9 March 1773. Early in life he joined his father, a mariner, on local voyages and longer trips to the West Indies. During the mid-1790s Hull commanded several merchant vessels, losing some to French privateers. He was commissioned a Lieutenant in the new United States Navy in March 1798 and distinguished himself during the next two years while serving on board the frigate CONSTITUTION in the undeclared war with France. When troubles with the Barbary powers heated up in 1802 he went to the Mediterranean as First Lieutenant of the frigate ADAMS. Hull later commanded the schooner ENTERPRISE and the brig ARGUS, receiving promotion to the rank of Master Commandant in 1804 and to Captain in 1806. During the next few years he supervised the construction of gunboats and in 1809 and 1810 was successively given command of the frigates, CHESAPEAKE, PRESIDENT and CONSTITUTION.

Captain Hull's time on CONSTITUTION was eventful. He took the ship on a European cruise in 1811-12, returning home before the War of 1812 broke out between the United States and Great Britain. An enemy squadron closely pursued his ship off the East Coast in July, but Hull skillfully evaded them. On 19 August 1812, CONSTITUTION encountered the British frigate GUERRIERE at sea and pounded her to a wreck in an action that electrified the Nation and demonstrated that the small U.S. Navy was a worthy and dangerous opponent for Britain's otherwise overwhelming maritime might.

Isaac Hull commanded the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine, for the rest of the War of 1812, then briefly served on the Board of Navy Commissioners in Washington before taking over leadership of the Boston Navy Yard. During 1823-1827 he commanded the U.S. squadron operating along South America's Pacific coast. Commodore Hull's next assignment, as Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard, ran from 1829 until 1835. Between 1839 and 1841 he commanded the Mediterranean Squadron. Rendered unfit for further service by age and ill health, he spend the next two years on leave. Commodore Isaac Hull died at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 13 February 1843.

go to the end of the page

History of USS HULL:

USS HULL was built at Bath, Maine. She was commissioned in early July 1958 and transited the Panama Canal a few months later to begin a long career with the Pacific Fleet. Between April and August 1959 HULL conducted the first of her fifteen deployments to serve with the Seventh Fleet in the Western Pacific. She made three more cruises in that area in 1960, 1961-1962 and 1963-1964. During October and November 1962 the destroyer escorted Pacific-based amphibious forces to the Panama Canal Zone as part of the Navy's Cuban Missile Crisis operations. HULL's 1965 Seventh Fleet tour was the first of six Vietnam War deployments, during which she fired tens of thousands of five-inch shells in support of forces ashore and helped rescue several downed U.S. aviators.

HULL made her eleventh WestPac cruise in 1973, after the direct U.S. role in the Vietnam conflict had ended. Overhauled after that, she lost her remaining three-inch gun mount and had her forward five-inch gun replaced by an experimental eight-inch type. She conducted tests of the latter weapon during 1975-1978, and also made her twelfth and thirteenth Seventh Fleet deployments during this time. The big gun was removed in 1979, and HULL spent the rest of her days with the three five-inch gun mounts that were typical of her class.

In February-September 1981 HULL served again in Asian waters. She began her final deployment in September 1982, steaming to the Western Pacific by way of Alaska, rescuing five Vietnamese refugees at sea in October and then moving further west to serve in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea as part of the battle group built around the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier ENTERPRISE (CVN 65). Returning to the U.S. West Coast in April 1983, she immediately commenced inactivation preparations. USS HULL decommissioned in July 1983 and was sunk as a target in April 1998.

go to the end of the page

USS HULL Image Gallery:

Back to Destroyers list.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.