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22°42′31″N120°17′27″E / 22.7085680°N 120.2907658°E /22.7085680; 120.2907658
_underway_on_30_May_1965_(NH_99067).jpg) USSHawkins underway on 30 May 1965 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Hawkins |
| Namesake | William D. Hawkins |
| Builder | Consolidated Steel Corporation |
| Laid down | 14 May 1944 |
| Launched | 7 October 1944 |
| Sponsored by | Mrs. Clara Jane Hawkins |
| Commissioned | 10 February 1945 |
| Decommissioned | 1 October 1979 |
| Stricken | 1 October 1979 |
| Identification |
|
| Motto |
|
| Nickname(s) | Sea Hawks |
| Honors & awards | SeeAwards |
| Fate | Sold toTaiwan, 1 October 1979 |
| Badge | _insignia.png) |
 Taiwan | |
| Name |
|
| Namesake | Ziyang |
| Acquired | 1 October 1979 |
| Commissioned | 9 July 1983 |
| Decommissioned | 16 October 1998 |
| Reclassified | DDG-930 |
| Identification | Hull number: DD-930 |
| Fate | Scrapped |
| Notes | Bridge is at Zuoying Naval Academy |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Gearing-classdestroyer |
| Displacement | 3,460 tons |
| Length | 390.6 ft (119.1 m) |
| Beam | 40.1 ft (12.2 m) |
| Draft | 14.4 ft (4.4 m) |
| Propulsion | 60,000 shp (45,000 kW); General Electric geared turbines, 2 screws |
| Speed | 36.8 kn (68.2 km/h; 42.3 mph) |
| Armament |
|
USSHawkins (DD-873) was aGearing-classdestroyer in theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II. Following the war, the ship saw service in theKorean War and in the 1970s, was transferred to theRepublic of China Navy asTze Yang. She remained in service until the 1990s. The ship was then scrapped with the exception of her superstructure, which became part of a display and training ground at the Zuoying Naval Academy.
Hawkins, originally to be namedBeatty, but renamed on 22 June 1944 andlaunched byConsolidated Steel Corporation,Orange, Texas, 7 October 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Clara Jane Hawkins, mother of namesake First LieutenantWilliam Deane Hawkins (killed on Tarawa). The destroyer wascommissioned on 10 February 1945.
Following shakedown training in theCaribbean,Hawkins arrived atNorfolk on 23 March 1945 to undergo conversion to a radar picket ship. Emerging 26 May, she conducted training exercises before sailing 18 June fromGuantanamo Bay, Cuba, forSan Diego andPearl Harbor. After her arrival 8 JulyHawkins prepared to enter the last phase of thePacific War, but 3 days after her 12 August departure from Pearl Harbor forEniwetok theJapanese surrendered. The destroyer continued from Eniwetok toIwo Jima andTokyo Bay, arriving 27 August, and assisted in early occupation operations. She then escorted ships to and from theMarianas, remaining in Japanese waters until 3 January 1946.Hawkins then steamed to thePhilippines andSaipan, finally arriving Pearl Harbor 3 April.
Arriving at San Diego on 11 April, the destroyer took part in training operations off the West Coast until sailing again for theFar East January 1947. During the months that followed she steamed between Chinese andKorean ports, assisting and supportingAmerican Marine units in their attempts to stabilize the Chinese situation and protect American lives.Hawkins under the command of Cmdr. Alfred L. Cope, played a significant role in rescue operations off Chilang PointHong Kong 19 July 1947, when the steamerSS Hong Kheng sank with over 2,000 passengers on board. She returned to theUnited States 8 October 1947.
After a year of operations out of San Diego the ship sailed again for theFar East, arriving atTsingtao,China on 29 October. Following operations off the Chinese coastHawkins got underway from Tsingtao on 6 December. On this long voyage, completing a circuit of the globe, the destroyer visitedCeylon, Turkey,Gibraltar,New York City, andPanama before arriving San Diego 10 March 1949.
_underway_in_the_Mediterranean_Sea_on_9_September_1957.jpg)
Hawkins was reassigned to theU.S. Atlantic Fleet soon afterward, arriving at her new home port,Newport, Rhode Island on 23 May 1949. For the next year she took part in Reserve training cruises and readiness exercises in the Caribbean. The ship had been reclassified DDR-873 on 18 March 1949.Hawkins departed on 2 May 1950 for a cruise with6th Fleet in theMediterranean.
While in the Mediterranean, the world became aware of theCommunist invasion ofSouth Korea. AfterNATO maneuvers,Hawkins returned to Newport 10 October and prepared to become part of the fleet sailing for what became known as theKorean War. Sailing on 3 January via thePanama Canal she arrived atPusan on 5 February. During her four months of Korean duty,Hawkins screened the mobileaircraft carrier forces during strikes on enemy positions and supply lines, providedantisubmarine protection, and controlledjet aircraft in combat air patrols. She also acted as plane guard during operations in theFormosa Straits designed to discourage Communist aggression against the friendly island. Departing the Far East in June, the destroyer returned to Newport on 8 August via the Mediterranean.
For the next few years the veteran ship alternated picket duty and training operations in the western Atlantic with periodic cruises to the Mediterranean with the 6th Fleet. She was in the Eastern Mediterranean during the summer of 1950 when theSuez crisis threatened the security and peace of the area.Hawkins arrived atMayport, Florida, her new homeport, on 18 August 1960. She became part of DESRON-8 performing exercises in theBahamas and Caribbean areas with one deployment of radar picket duty off the coast ofNicaragua returning to Mayport in December 1960. In January 1961 the destroyer soon resumed her pattern of cruises to the Mediterranean.
In 1961 she operated with a special Task Group in connection with American space experiments and missile tests offCape Canaveral, Florida. When the introduction of offensive missiles intoCuba in 1962 threatened the security of the United States,Hawkins joined with other ships in quarantining that Caribbean country, cruising the Caribbean from late October until December. In 1963 the ship returned to the Mediterranean in January returning to Mayport in July and in August took part inPolaris missile tests in the Caribbean with thesubmarineUSS Alexander Hamilton. During the next 5 months,Hawkins operated with aircraft carriers off Florida and in the Caribbean. Following additional Polaris missile tests withUSS Andrew Jackson in February 1964, the destroyer steamed toBoston 21 March and was placed in commission, in reserve, prior to undergoing aFRAM I overhaul.
_with_DASH_drone_c1965.JPG)
Reclassified DD-873 on 1 April,Hawkins completed FRAM late in 1964. Assigned to Destroyer Squadron 24, she operated out of Newport until departing 29 September for duty in the Far East. Steaming via the Panama Canal and the West Coast, she joined the7th Fleet on 23 November. For the next three months she guarded aircraft carriers in theSouth China Sea and theGulf of Tonkin and provided gunfire support for ground troops along the coast ofSouth Vietnam. She departedSubic Bay late in February 1966, steamed via theSuez Canal, and arrived Newport 8 April.
Hawkins, over the next few months, participated in naval exercises off the East Coast and in the Caribbean. Departing Newport on 28 November, she joined the 6th Fleet at Gibraltar 8 December and becameflagship for ComDesRon 24. For more than three months she cruised the Mediterranean fromSpain toGreece before returning to Newport 20 March 1967. Into mid-1967 she operated along the Atlantic Coast fromNew England toFlorida.
Hawkins went into theBoston Naval Shipyard in 1967 for overhaul. After months in the shipyard and in dry dock, the ship went toGuantanamo Bay, Cuba for a shakedown cruise.
On 11 February 1969,Hawkins was operating off the coast of Cuba with the submarineUSS Chopper whenChopper had a near-fatal accident. The submarine managed to surface butChopper shot through the surface of the ocean, nearly vertical. The entire forward section of the submarine, to the aft edge of the sail, cleared the surface before she fell back.
In July 1969,Hawkins, working out of Cape Canaveral, Florida began Polaris missile tests with theRoyal Navy's submarineHMS Renown, which ended with a successful test firing of a missile down a test range. Immediately afterward, these same tests were made with the submarineUSS Thomas Jefferson but in this case the test was aborted shortly after launch.
Hawkins took part in the United States space project in November 1969 when it was assigned to theApollo 12 Atlantic Recovery Force. The ship was fitted with special capsule recovery gear and practiced along with a NavyUnderwater Demolition Team (UDT) to be prepared to recover the space capsule in the Atlantic if the Pacific landing was aborted.
In December 1969,Hawkins changed homeport from Newport, Rhode Island, to Norfolk, Virginia.
In 1970, the United States Navy assigned the destroyerUSS Steinaker to the NATO Standing Naval Force Atlantic forExercise Atlantic Ice.Steinaker ran aground while doing maneuvers in a fjord nearHarstad, traveling at 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) and was removed from the exercise.Hawkins was directed to replaceSteinaker and complete their assignment with NATO.Hawkins metSteinaker inBergen, Norway to offload their munitions, allowing them to enter the repair facility atHaakonsvern. From Bergen,Hawkins traveled toOslo with exercises above theArctic Circle en route. After more exercise in theNorth Sea, the force stopped inKiel and then proceeded toCopenhagen in mid-May. There was a show of flags inAntwerp andPlymouth. Leaving Plymouth at the end of May, the force exercised with a French submarine in theBay of Biscay before going toLisbon.
On 9 February 1971,Hawkins again participated in the space program as a backup recovery ship in the Atlantic forApollo 14.
In the spring of 1977, the USS Hawkins DD-873 was deployed to the US Sixth Fleet, where she served both with a CVBG and independently until October when she returned to Norfolk and began the transition to the Naval Reserve Fleet.
From 1977 to 1979, theHawkins was assigned as a Naval Reserve training ship in Philadelphia. By that time she was nearing the end of her designed lifespan. Science fiction writerJames D. Macdonald, then an ensign in the United States Naval Reserve, was assigned to her during this period, and reported to the captain one morning that the sounding tape used to check the water level in the ship's tanks had punched through the striking plate in one of the sounding tubes and the hull plate beyond it, indicating the hull was becoming unsound.
The ship was stricken from theNavy List on 1 October 1979 and sold to theTaiwan in 1983.
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The ship was commissioned on 9 July 1983 and renamedShao Yang[1][2] orTze Yang[3] (DD-930) after repairs were completed.
DuringExercise Han Kuang in 1989, she successfully launched theRUR-5 ASROC and torpedoes.[4]
The ship was scrapped in the late 1990s, but part of her superstructure is on display and training ground in the Zuoying Naval Academy,Kaohsiung City.[3][5][6] Another one of her 5-inch gun is on static display at the Kaohsiung Harbor, YM Museum of Marine Exploration Kaohsiung.
Hawkins received twobattle stars for Korean War service.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1989 | |
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