USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (DD-850)
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The USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (DD-850) is a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy. The ship was named after Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., a naval aviator, son of the former Ambassador to Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and older brother of future President John F. Kennedy. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. is presently on display as a museum ship in Fall River, Massachusetts.
Kennedy was built by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's Fore River Shipyard at Quincy, Massachusetts, launched on 26 July 1945, and commissioned on 15 December 1945. This vessel would serve, with interruptions for modernization, until 1973.
Ship's Specifications as follows:
Displacement (pre-FRAM): Standard-2,425 tons. full load-3,479 tons
Dimensions: 390 ft 6 in (119 m)
Beam: 40 ft 10 in (12.4 m)
Mean draft: 14 ft 4 in (4.4 m)
Fuel capacity: 196,000 US gallons (742 m³)
Range: 5,800 miles (9,300 km) at 15 knots (28 km)
Propulsion: Four Babcock and Wilcox 615 lb/in² (4.2 MPa) 850 °F (450 °C) superheated D-Type express boilers supplying two sets of high pressure, low pressure and cruising turbines (General Electric or Westinghouse)generating a total of 60,000 s.h.p. (45 MW) to two shafts each with a 12.5 foot (3.8 m) four bladed propeller.
Shaft rpm: 350 normal maximum
Speed: 35.25 knots (65 km/h), many of the class reached 37 knots (69 km/h) in service
Complement-typical: 274 (14 officers, 260 enlisted)
Complement-wartime pre-FRAM: 345 (20 officers, 325 enlisted)
Weapons after Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM - I) in 1962:
- 2 x 5 inch (127 mm) 38 caliber twin gun mounts guided by a Mk37 director with Mk25 fire control radar linked by a Mk1A electromechanical analog computer stabilized by a Mk6 8,500 rpm gyro.
- Two- triple tubes of 12.75 in (324 mm) Mk 32 torpedoes
- Antisubmarine rocket launcher (ASROC), four double celled boxes housing 8 missiles, nuclear depth charge capability.
- Two- drone antisubmarine helicopters (DASH) able to deliver two torpedoes up to 30 miles (50 km) from the ship.
Radar, Electronics, Sonar after FRAM I:
- SPS 10 surface search radar
- SPS 40 air search radar
- SQS 23 long range sonar
After decommissioning, Kennedy was stricken from the Naval Register and removed to Fall River, Massachusetts as a unit of the Battleship Cove Museum. She is there today and open to the public.
United States Department of Defense, United States Navy (Naval Historical Center), Naval Vessel Register.