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General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

Cruise Books and Pamphlets

About the Ship's Coat of Arms

Accidents aboard the Ship

About the Ship's Name

USS Farragut's Commanding Officers

Ship's History

Homeports of USS Farragut

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USS Farragut (DDG 37)

USS FARRAGUT, the fourth ship in the Navy to bear the name, was projected as DL 6, reclassified DLG 6 on November 14, 1956, and finally became DDG 37 on June 30, 1975. The FARRAGUT was decommissioned on October 31, 1989, after almost 29 years of service and was stricken from the Navy list on November 20, 1992. FARRAGUT spent the following years laid-up at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF) in Philadelphia, PA, and has since been scrapped.

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Crew List:

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

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USS FARRAGUT Cruise Books and Pamphlets:

• Maiden Cruise Book 1961-62
• Mediterranean Cruise Book 1962-63
• Mediterranean Cruise Book 1963-64
• Mediterranean Cruise Book 1977
• Mediterranean and Middle East Cruise Book 1980-81
• Mediterranean Cruise Book 1989
• Decommissioning Pamphlet

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About the Ship's Coat of Arms:

The crest of the USS FARRAGUT is based on the Farragut family Coat of Arms which dates back to the 13th century. The family Coat of Arms is the shield with the golden charger's shoe and nail emblazoned thereon. It originated with Don Pedro Farragut who was a knight with King James I of Aragon and who helped drive the Moors from Majorca and from Valencia.

The eagle carrying the shield is taken from the sternpiece of the USS HARTFORD, which was Admiral Farragut's flagship, carrying him to victory in battle. The four goki stars represent the four ships which have thus far worn his name. Admiral Farragut is remembered for the famous quote at the bottom of the crest, which was spoken by him in the heat of battle at Mobile Bay during the Civil War.

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Accidents aboard USS FARRAGUT:

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About the Ship's Name:

David Glasgow Farragut, born at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, Tenn., 5 July 1801, entered the Navy as a midshipman 17 December 1810. When only 12 years old, he was given command of a prize ship taken by ESSEX, and brought her safely to port. Through the years that followed, in one assignment after another he showed the high ability and devotion to duty which was to allow him in the Civil War to make an overwhelming contribution to victory and to write an immortal page in the history of not only the United States Navy but of military service of all times and nations.

In command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, with his flag in HARTFORD he disproved the theory that forts ashore held superiority over naval forces, when in April 1862 he ran past Forts Jackson and St. Philip and the Chalmette batteries to take the great city and port of New Orleans (a decisive event in the war) and later that year passed the batteries defending Vicksburg. Port Hudson fell to him 9 July 1863, and on 5 August 1864 he won a great victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay, passing through heavy minefields (the torpedoes of his famous quotation) as well as the opposition of heavy batteries in Forts Morgan and Gaines to defeat the squadron of Admiral Franklin Buchanan.

His country honored its great sailor by creating for him the rank of Admiral, never before used in the United States Navy. Admiral Farragut's last active service was in command of the European Squadron with Franklin as his flagship, and he died at Portsmouth, N.H., 14 August 1870.

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USS FARRAGUT's Commanding Officers:

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USS FARRAGUT History:

USS FARRAGUT was commissioned at the Boston Naval Shipyard on December 10, 1960, following construction at Bethlehem Steel's yard in Quincy, Massachusetts. Assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, the new ship conducted shakedown and early training on the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean before beginning regular Sixth Fleet duty in the Mediterranean. Early deployments fell in 1961 and again beginning in August 1962. A further Mediterranean cruise commenced in February 1964. On May 24, 1962, while positioned as part of the Navy's Atlantic recovery force for Project Mercury, FARRAGUT was the first ship to arrive near astronaut Scott Carpenter's off-target AURORA 7 splashdown. Lacking specialized recovery gear, she maintained on-scene watch until USS JOHN R. PIERCE (DD 753) retrieved the capsule, while a helicopter from USS INTREPID (CVS 11) recovered Carpenter himself. The ship's routine European and Mediterranean cycles continued with another deployment beginning May 1965 and yet another beginning June 1966.

In 1968, FARRAGUT entered a maintenance and training phase: she underwent a restricted availability at Mayport from January into early April for forced-draft blower repairs, followed by antiair and fleet exercises. Through the turn of the decade, the ship cycled between Atlantic/Caribbean training and European waters as Atlantic Fleet schedules dictated. In 1972, she executed a long South Atlantic deployment with UNITAS XIII, embarked July 21 and completing December 3, operating alongside multiple South American navies. This cruise included equator crossings during July and August as she circumnavigated the continent.

From September 13, 1973, through 1975, FARRAGUT received the comprehensive DLG anti-air warfare modernization at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard - an overhaul that, among other upgrades, brought the ship to STANDARD/TERRIER common-launcher capability and improved sensors and combat systems - after which she rejoined the fleet. As part of the Navy's fleet-wide category changes, she was reclassified from DLG 6 to DDG 37 on June 30, 1975. Only weeks later she sailed to the North Atlantic. On October 24, 1975, while departing Den Helder, Netherlands, for Brest, France, the destroyer briefly grounded, damaging both sonar domes and continuing at reduced speed pending repairs.

In early 1976, FARRAGUT moved into intense Sixth Fleet operations. Between February 17-22 she served as the Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone (PIRAZ) ship for USS NIMITZ (CVN 68) during the carrier's first Mediterranean deployment, followed by a two-day missile exercise north of Crete and a port visit to Naples from February 28 to March 10. She continued task-group work and port cycling in the central and western Mediterranean thereafter.

Through 1977, the ship again deployed to the Mediterranean (January-August), operating with Sixth Fleet formations and conducting the usual mix of air-defense stationing, multi-ship exercises, and port calls that marked Cold War presence missions in the basin. In 1979, FARRAGUT completed refresher training in the Caribbean - firing eight training missile rounds on February 5 - and returned to the Mediterranean later that year. A Navy photograph shows her anchored off Toulon, France, on November 12, 1979.

FARRAGUT continued forward presence into the new decade. She spent extended periods with Sixth Fleet carrier and surface action groups across 1980-1981, including Indian Ocean work as the Carter-to-Reagan transition kept U.S. naval forces committed in the wake of the Iran crisis. A Shellback ceremony aboard on February 12, 1981, marked an equator crossing during those long-range operations. In late 1982, the destroyer redeployed to the Mediterranean and operated off Lebanon as part of the U.S. naval screen supporting the Multinational Force in Beirut. That commitment spanned from November 1982 into June 1983 while allied contingents attempted to stabilize the situation ashore following the 1982 Israeli incursion and the subsequent MNF mandate. Afterward, FARRAGUT entered an overhaul period at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in late 1983 before returning to fleet cycles.

The ship's 1986 cruise to the Mediterranean (roughly March-September) coincided with heightened tensions with Libya. FARRAGUT's Sixth Fleet task groups challenged excessive claims in the Gulf of Sidra. U.S. strikes and engagements in March 1986 targeted Libyan maritime units and air defenses after provocations. For related operations that year off Libya, the destroyer received a Navy Unit Commendation. In January 1987, FARRAGUT also took part in Coast Guard-supported law-enforcement work in the Gulf of Mexico, earning a Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation for that duty. Later that year, on October 9, 1987, she conducted a medical evacuation to the aircraft carrier USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71) off the U.S. East Coast during carrier qualifications, a small vignette of her continuing readiness tasks between deployments.

FARRAGUT's final overseas service came with THEODORE ROOSEVELT's maiden deployment. Departing at the end of 1988 with Carrier Air Wing EIGHT embarked in THEODORE ROOSEVELT, the battle group relieved JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67)'s in the Mediterranean in mid-January 1989. FARRAGUT spent the first half of 1989 on Sixth Fleet stations with that group through the end of June. The destroyer returned to Norfolk with THEODORE ROOSEVELT's force on June 30, 1989, closing nearly three decades of front-line service. She was decommissioned on October 31, 1989, later stricken on November 20, 1992; disposal followed, with a dismantling contract awarded in 2006. The ship's bell today resides with the Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida, preserving a tangible link to her name and history.

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Homeports of USS FARRAGUT:

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USS FARRAGUT Image Gallery:

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