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USS LAWRENCE DD-954

Home » Ships » DD-954

Hull Number: DD-954

Launch Date: 02/27/1960

Commissioned Date: 01/06/1962

Decommissioned Date: 03/30/1990

Call Sign: NTQP

Voice Call Sign: PROUD STAR

Other Designations: DDG-4


Namesake: JAMES LAWRENCE

JAMES LAWRENCE

Wikipedia (as of 2024)

James Lawrence (October 1, 1781 – June 4, 1813) was an officer of the United States Navy. During the War of 1812, he commanded USS Chesapeake in a single-ship action against HMS Shannon, commanded by Philip Broke. He is probably best known today for his last words, “Don’t give up the ship!”, uttered during the capture of the Chesapeake. The quotation is still a popular naval battle cry, and was invoked in Oliver Hazard Perry‘s personal battle flag, adopted to commemorate his dead friend.[1][2]

Lawrence was born on October 1, 1781, the son of John and Martha (Tallman) Lawrence, in Burlington, New Jersey, but raised in Woodbury. His mother died when he was an infant, and his Loyalist father fled to Canada during the American Revolution, leaving his half-sister to care for the young Lawrence. He attended Woodbury Academy.[3] Though Lawrence studied law, he entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1798. Lawrence hailed from a New England family of English descent, as his first ancestor to the American Colonies was William Lawrence, sailing from Hertfordshire, England. [4]

During the Quasi-War with France, he served on USS Ganges and the frigate USS Adams in the Caribbean. He was commissioned a lieutenant on April 6, 1802, and served aboard USS Enterprise in the Mediterranean, taking part in a successful attack on enemy craft on June 2, 1803.

In February 1804, he was second in command during the expedition to destroy the captured frigate USS Philadelphia. Later in the conflict he commanded Enterprise and a gunboat in battles with the Tripolitans. He was also First Lieutenant of the frigate Adams and, in 1805, commanded the small Gunboat No. 6 during a voyage across the Atlantic to North Africa.

Although Gunboats No. 2 through 10 (minus No. 7) arrived in the Mediterranean too late to see action, they remained there with Commodore Rodgers’s squadron until summer 1806, at which time they sailed back to the United States. On June 12, 1805, Gunboat No. 6 encountered a Royal Navy vessel that impressed three seamen.[5][6]

Subsequently, Lieutenant Lawrence commanded the warships USS Vixen, USS Wasp and USS Argus. In 1810, he also took part in trials of an experimental spar torpedo.[citation needed] Promoted to the rank of Master Commandant in November 1810, he took command of the sloop of war USS Hornet a year later and sailed her to Europe on a diplomatic mission. From the beginning of the War of 1812, Lawrence and Hornet cruised actively, capturing the privateer Dolphin in July 1812. Later in the year Hornet blockaded the British sloop HMS Bonne Citoyenne at Bahia, Brazil, and on February 24, 1813 captured HMS Peacock.

Upon his return to the United States in March, Lawrence learned of his promotion to captain. Two months later he took command of the frigate Chesapeake, then preparing for sea at Boston. He left port on June 1, 1813, and immediately engaged the blockading Royal Navy frigate Shannon in a fierce battle. Although slightly smaller, the British ship disabled Chesapeake with gunfire within the first few minutes. Captain Lawrence, mortally wounded by small arms fire, ordered his officers, “Don’t give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks.”[7] or “Tell the men to fire faster! Don’t give up the ship.”[1] Men carried him below, and his crew was overwhelmed by a British boarding party shortly afterward. James Lawrence died of his wounds on June 4, 1813, while his captors directed Chesapeake to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

After Lawrence’s death was reported to his friend and fellow officer Oliver Hazard Perry, he ordered a large blue battle ensign, stitched with the phrase “DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP” [sic] in bold white letters. The Perry Flag was displayed on his flagship during a victorious engagement against the British on Lake Erie in September 1813.[1] The original flag is displayed in the Naval Academy Museum and a replica is displayed in Memorial Hall at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. A replica is also on view at Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, on South Bass Island, Ohio.

Lawrence was buried with military honors at present-day CFB Halifax, Nova Scotia, but reinterred at Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City. He was survived by his wife, Julia (Montaudevert) Lawrence, who lived until 1865, and their two-year-old daughter, Mary Neill Lawrence. In 1838 Mary married a Navy officer, Lt. William Preston Griffin.

On July 4, 1813, Lawrence was posthumously elected to membership in the New York Society of the Cincinnati.[8]


Disposition:

Stricken 5/16/1990


Ship History

USS LAWRENCE DD-954 Ship History

Wikipedia (as of 2024)

USS Lawrence (DD-954/DDG-4) was a Charles F. Adams class guided-missile destroyer in the United States Navy. It was the fifth ship named after Captain James Lawrence USN (1781–1813). The USS Lawrence served on blockade duty during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 and, in 1972, was part of Operation Linebacker in the west Pacific.

USS Lawrence was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey on 27 October 1958. The ship was launched on 27 February 1960, by Mrs. Fernie C. Hubbard, the great-great-granddaughter of Captain James Lawrence. The ship was commissioned on 6 January 1962. After a shakedown cruise on the Great Lakes, USS Lawrence proceeded to Naval Station Norfolk for duty in the Atlantic Fleet.

Following the rapid development of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the warship deployed with Task Group 136.1, a surface quarantine group of cruisers composed of USS Canberra (CAG-2), USS Newport News (CA-148), three guided-missile destroyers including USS Lawrence, and twelve escorts. The group took up a blocking position north of Cuba on 24 October 1962, two days into the crisis. On Friday, 26 October 1962, USS Lawrence and MacDonough (DLG-8) began shadowing MT Grozny, a tanker proceeding towards Cuba. The next day, the Soviet Union agreed to defuse the crisis and military forces on both sides began standing down.[1]

After returning to Norfolk on 6 December 1962, USS Lawrence began the first of many Mediterranean cruises on 6 February 1963, steaming across the Atlantic to join the Sixth Fleet for operations in European waters, where she remained until 1 July 1963. Following a second Mediterranean deployment between April and August 1964, the warship received an extensive overhaul in Norfolk over the ensuing winter. Before the end of the decade, she conducted four more cruises; a Sixth Fleet deployment (24 August 1965 to 17 December 1965), a NATO exercise in the North Atlantic (3 August 1966 to 5 September 1966), another Mediterranean tour (27 September 1966 to 1 February 1967) and a third Sixth Fleet cruise (10 January 1968 to 4 May 1968). During her fourth Mediterranean deployment, USS Lawrence helped rescue crewmen from the sinking merchant vessel New Meadow, in distress off the coast of Crete.

Following two additional Mediterranean deployments, one in 1969 and another in 1971, the much-traveled destroyer made one Vietnam War tour in the Western Pacific from 1972 to 1973, providing naval gunfire support, rescuing downed aviators and serving as plane guard during aircraft carrier operations. Among her guests on Yankee Station were the Chief of Naval Operations and Secretary of the Navy.

As the U.S.S. Lawrence came through the locks in the Panama canal, her sister ship was sabotaged by a crewman that dropped a large wrench into the main reduction gear shaft, causing her to be towed to San Diego for repairs while the USS Lawrence sailed on to Vietnam and engaged in Operation Linebacker. At the time, she was affectionately known as the “Leapin Larry” by her crew. For her service, she was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation.

Two more Sixth Fleet cruises followed in 1977-78 and 1979, and during the latter she briefly visited the Black Sea. USS Lawrence circumnavigated Africa en route to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, deployment that took place in 1974. USS Lawrence passed through the Mediterranean en route to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, deployments that took place in 1980 and 1983 to 1984.

USS Lawrence also saw frequent service closer to home, in the western Atlantic and Caribbean, and occasionally visited other waters. In 1986, she circumnavigated around South America as part of Operation Unitas XVII, exercising with Latin American navies and visiting ports in Puerto Rico, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil. During that deployment, she served as the flagship for Destroyer Squadron 26.

The USS Lawrence was decommissioned on 30 March 1990 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 16 May 1990.[2] The ship was sold for scrap on 15 April 1994. The Navy repossessed the ship in October 1996 after the ship breaking company failed, and it was finally resold for scrap on 10 February 1999.[1]