DES MOINES CL 17

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.

Denver Class Light Cruiser Keel Laid 8 August 1900 - Launched 20 September 1902 USS DES MOINES Cruiser No. 15 Commissioned 5 March 1904 - Decommissioned 6 December 1911 Recommissioned 3 September 1912 USS DES MOINES PG-29 Reclassified Gunboat (PG) 17 July 1920 Decommissioned 9 April 1921 USS DES MOINES CL-17 Reclassified Light Cruiser (CL) 8 August 1921 while in reserve Struck from Naval Register 13 December 1929 Sold 11 March 1930 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. USS Des Moines Cruiser No. 15 Covers Page 1     (1909-1917)

 

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 Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

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1st Commissioning 5 March 1904 to 6 December 1911

 

Locy Type 1

1911-03-26

As Cruiser No. 15. Picture postcard of the high school, Portsmouth, VA

 

Locy Type 9v

1911-10-15

As Cruiser No. 15. Cut piece pasted to cover

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2nd Commissioning 3 September 1912 to 9 April 1921

 

Locy Type 3 " / CRETE"

1915-09-10

As Cruiser No. 15

 

Locy Type 3b (XOX) "HARWICH / ENGLAND"

1919-05-04

As Cruiser No. 15. Picture postcard from Plymouth England. Free Frank Officers Mail from Lt. Owen E. Grissom USN to his mother.
The USS Des Moines was enroute from New York City to Archangel, Russia, and duty with the Naval Forces in Northern Russia.

 

Other Information

USS DES MOINES earned the Cuban Pacification Medal, the Mexican Service Medal and the World War I Victory Medal w/ Escort Clasp during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - Named for the city of Des Moines, Iowa.

The ships sponsor was Miss E. Macomber.

Three ships of the US Navy have borne the name DES MOINES - USS Des Moines CL-17, USS Des Moines CA-75 and USS Des Moines CA-134

 

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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.

 

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