USS Lockwood - FF1064
The USS Lockwood was a Knox Class Frigate that was launched in 1968 and de-commissioned in 1993. Her last resting place was at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, California where she was broken up.
She was built by Todd Shipyards, Seattle, ordered in 1965, laid down 3rd November 1967, launched 5th September 1968, commissioned on 5th December 1970 and decommissioned on 27th September 1993. Her home port was Long Beach and she served mainly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. She was probably named after Charles A. Lockwood who commanded the Pacific Submarine fleet in the Second World War
The "highlight" of her career occurred on 10th December 1985:-
While crossing the Uraga Suido outbound traffic seperation
lanes to enter Yokosuka, Japan, the USS Lockwood [FF-1064] collided with the
Philippine merchant ship Santo-Nino at 7:26 p.m., Dec. 10, 1985. The Lockwood
commanded by Cmdr. Warren P. Hudson, was hit on the starboard side, forward of
the bridge. Damage included a hole 15 ft. wide, 12 ft. deep and extends 25 ft.
down the starboard side.
Three Lockwood crewmembers suffered minor injuries. Two were treated and
released and one remains hospitalized with a fractured foot.
From Scott Worne, crew member on bridge watch:-
When pulling in towards port one dark night, our captain came up from his quarters with a loss of night vision and took control of the deck. He then ordered full left rudder to cut across oncoming traffic to pull into Yokosuka. I was on watch on the bridge. I yelled at him that there was a ship in our way! He said " there is not! " and the fully loaded freighter slammed into us right in front of the bridge, destroying the new missile launcher, and nearly cutting us in half! If the sonar boys had been on watch, they would have all been crushed. The C.O. was demoted to a desk job soon after!
The two pictures below are reproduced with the kind permission of Scott Worne.
Displacement: 4,260 tons fully loaded.
Length: 438'
Beam: 47'
Draught: 16' (keel); 26' (Sonar dome)
Machinery: Two combustion Engineering boilers; One Westinghouse geared turbine; 35,000 shp; 1 shaft.
Performance: 27 kts.
Bunkerage: 200,000 gallons
Range: 4,000 miles at 22 knots on 1 boiler.
Guns: 1 FMC 5" 54 cal Mk-42
Torpedoes: MK 32
The Knox FF class was the result of congressional opposition to mounting costs of the Brooke FFG class Missile Frigate after only six Brooke class ships were built. Accordingly their mission was altered to ASW escort from that of a general escort. The original designation of the Knox class was Destroyer Escort being changed later to Frigate but retaining the original hull number.
The Knox-class frigates, all of which have been retired, fulfilled a Protection of Shipping (POS) mission as Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) combatants for amphibious expeditionary forces, underway replenishment groups and merchant convoys. The Knox-class frigates initially formed the backbone of the Innovative Concept Reserve Training Program. Under this program, the last eight ships remaining in service were designated Type II Reserve Training Frigates [FFT], while 32 other frigates were deactivated and designated Type III ships. The Type III ships can be completely reactivated in 180 days. Each of the eight Reserve Training Frigates ship had its own reserve crew, and was also assigned four "nucleus crews" which would man the 32 Type III ships. The Reserve Training Frigates ships were to be homeported in New York, Mobile and Ingleside Texas. The Reserve Training Frigates were all inactivated in 1994, and some of them have been disposed of through the Security Assistance Program (SAP) foreign military sale program. Replacing the Knox-class frigates in this role, by the year 2000, seven of the 10 FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry frigates in the Naval Reserve Fleet will be modernized to the Flight III baseline. These ships fulfill an important role in reducing the Active force's operational and personnel tempo by responding to contingencies such as the Haitian embargo, counter-narcotics operations, and overseas deployments, such as Carat 96 in the Western Pacific.
Specifications for KNOX Class |
|
| Displacement | 4,200 tons (full load) |
| Length | 438 feet |
| Beam | 47 feet |
| Max Speed | 27 knots |
| Power Plant | 2 - 1200 psi boilers; 1 geared turbine, 1 shaft; 35,000 shaft horsepower |
| Aircraft | 1 -SH-2F (LAMPS -Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System) helicopters
The SH-2 Seasprite is a multi-mission helicopter featuring dual General Electric T700 engines, which give the aircraft true single engine capability throughout any mission configuration and profile. Standard mission equipment in the US Navy configuration includes: the AN/UYS-503 acoustic data processor and a state-of-the-art sonorbuoy processor that incorporates the best features of any Undersea Warfare (USW) equipment in the world today. |
| Armament | 8 - ASROC(from MK 16 launcher) 8 - Harpoon (from MK 16 box launcher) 4 - MK-46 torpedoes (from single tube launchers) 1 - 5-inch / 54 caliber MK 42 gun 1 - 20mm Phalanx close-in-weapons system 8 - Sea Sparrow BPDMS (on some ships) |
| Combat Systems | AN/SPS-40 Air Search Radar AN/SPS-67 Surface Search Radar AN/SLQ-32 Electronics Warfare System AN/SQS-26 Sonar AN/SQS-35 IVDS Sonar on some ships AN/SQR-18 Towed Array Sonar System Mk68 Gun Fire Control System Mk114 ASW Fire Control System Mk115 Missile Fire Control System |
| Complement | 285 (18 officers, 267 enlisted)(active duty ships)
175 USN (10 USN officers, 165 USN enlisted)+; |
The press release below details the fate of the USS Lockwood.
Alexandria,
Virginia, February 22, 2000 - Work is underway at the former Hunter's
Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, California, to dismantle and dispose of
the ex-USS Lockwood (FF-1064).
Following a recent decision by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) to
uphold the U.S. Navy's selection of Ship Dismantlement and Recycling Joint
Venture (SDR) for this work, a project office has been established in San
Francisco at what was formerly the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard to facilitate
the dismantlement and disposal process. The
$3.7 million contract is one of four competitive contracts awarded by the Navy
to bidders under a pilot program to develop and test environmentally sound and
cost effective methods for disposing of excess naval ships.
The disposal of the ex-USS Lockwood is expected to be completed within
approximately six months.
On
completion of the pilot program, SDR expects to submit bids to scrap additional
ships under the contract. At
present, the United States has an inactive fleet of over 200 Navy, Coast Guard,
and Maritime Administration ships located at various Inactive Ships Maintenance
Facilities around the country.
SDR
is a joint venture between Earth
Tech, Inc., and Ship Remediation and Recycling, Inc., a subsidiary of VSE
Corporation (NASDAQ: VSEC). Additional
subcontractors participating in the SDR pilot program include Astoria Metal
Corporation, Energetics Incorporated, John J. McMullen Associates, Inc., and
Strategic Procurement Services, Inc.
Information about the USS Lockwood and the KNOX Class in general has been obtained from the following sites:-
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/ff-1052.htm