HELENA CA 75

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Baltimore Class Heavy Cruiser Keel Laid September 9 1943 as DES MOINES Renamed November 6 1944 Launched April 28 1945 USS HELENA CA-75 Commissioned September 4 1945 - Decommissioned June 29 1963 Struck from Naval Register January 1 1974 Sold November 3 1974 for scrap

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1    (1945-63)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type / Killer Bar Text	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Close-Up Image	Thumbnail Link To Full Cover Image

 

Quincy MA Machine

1945-04-28

Launching

---

 

Locy Type 2(n) Oct 27, 1945 USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. H-25

1945-10-27

Note:

 

Locy Type 2(n) Oct 27, 1946 USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. H-25

1946-10-27

Note:

 

Locy Type 2(n) USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. H-25b

1946-11-09

Note:

 

Locy Type 2(n) USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. H-25b

1947-07-03

Note:

 

Locy Type 2(n) USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. H-25b

1948-11-10

USMC Birthday, Add-on cachet by Bruce D. Liddell

 

Locy Type 2r

1954-07-20

Note:

 

Locy Type 2t(n+u)

1961-05-14

R/S cachet

 

Locy Type 2t(n+u)

1961-05-14

Close-up view of the R/S cachet

 

Locy Type 2# (Br. #16185)

1945-10-02

Note:

 

Locy Type 9ef(nu)

1947-07-03

Note:

 

Locy Type LDPS 2(n+)

1963-03-18

Last Day Postal Service

 

Other Information

HELENA was presented the Presidential Unit Citation of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Service Medal with four stars.

NAMESAKE - Named in Honor of USS HELENA CL-50, Sunk during The Battle of Kula Gulf July 6 1943 with a loss of 168 of her crew

Five ships of the US Navy have been named HELENA - USS Helena PG-9, USS Helena CL-50, USS Helena CL-113 (Cancelled while under construction 1944), USS Helena CA-75 and USS Helena SSN-725.

 

---

 

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

---

Copyright 2024 Naval Cover Museum