At visit in Hamburg, late 50ties
The Newport News was a member of the Des Moines class of heavy cruisers

CA 134 Des Moines, CA139 Salem, CA140 Dallas and CA 148 Newport News, of the four the Dallas was cancelled whilst under construction and scrapped, today only the Salem remains as a museum ship at Quincy, Massachusetts which is of course her home port where she was built by Bethlehem, if you watch the iconic British film 'Battle of the River Plate' Graf Spee is played by the Salem.

Newport News was the only member of the four ships not built by Bethlehem, she was laid down by Newport News navy yard on the O1st Oct 1948, launched on the 06th March 1948 and commissioned on the 29th Jan 1949.

They were handsome and well built ships and although well after WW2 they may be seen as one of the best heavy cruisers ever built.

L 716'06" B 75'04" Draft 26' Disp 17,500 tons standard and 21,000 full load

Qaudruple screws, General Electric geared steam turbines, four Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 120,000 shp 33 knots

Armament : standard US cruiser : nine Mk16 C55RF 8" guns in three triple turrets, RF indicating rapid fire, these guns could fire up to ten rounds of 335 lb shells a minute each to a range of about 14-15 miles, 150 rounds per gun being carried.

Heavy AA armament was twelve C38 5" guns in six twin mounts - two on either beam and one fwd and aft superfiring over the main turrets, this arrangement lent itself to a max of eight guns on a specific beam or six right ahead and astern.

Medium AA - twelve twin 3" HAAA guns plus twelve twin 20mm Oerlikon type.

Armour : very good, main belt 6" over sensitive areas reducing to 4" elsewhere, Main deck 3.75" over machinery and magazine areas, upper deck 1" overall, Turret faces 8", Roofs and sides 4", main armament barbettes 6.5" Conning tower 6.5"

New port news had a long and distinguished career and was finally decomissioned in 1975 and was very nearly saved as a museum ship before finally going to the scrap yard at Southern Metals in Louisianna in 1993 - she was the very last of the USN's heavy cruisers.