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USS Lawrence (DDG 4)

USS LAWRENCE - the fifth ship in the Navy to bear the name - was the third ship in the CHARLES F. ADAMS - class of guided missile destroyers. Stricken from the navy list on May 16, 1990, LAWRENCE was then laid up at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF), Philadelphia, PA. On February 10, 1999, the ship was sold for scrapping.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS LAWRENCE. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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About the Ship's Name:

James Lawrence was born in Burlington, New Jersey, on 1 October 1781. Though educated in the field of law, he joined the infant United States Navy in September 1798 as a Midshipman and served in the ship GANGES and frigate ADAMS during the undeclared war with France. Commissioned in the rank of Lieutenant in 1802, he served in the schooner ENTERPRISE during the War with Tripoli, taking part in a successful attack that burned enemy craft ashore on 2 June 1803. In February 1804 he was second in command of ketch INTREPID during the daring expedition to destroy the captured frigate PHILADELPHIA in Tripoli harbor. Later in the conflict he commanded ENTERPRISE and a gunboat in battles with the Tripolitans. He was also First Lieutenant of the frigate JOHN ADAMS and, in 1805, commanded the small Gunboat Number 6 during a voyage across the Atlantic to Italy.

Subsequently, Lieutenant Lawrence commanded the warships VIXEN, WASP and ARGUS. In 1810 he also took part in trials of an experimental spar-torpedo. Promoted to the rank of Master Commandant in November 1810, he took command of the sloop of war 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 on 9 July 1812. Later in the year HORNET blockaded the British sloop BONNE CITOYENNE at Bahia, Brazil, and on 24 February 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, Massachusetts. She left port on 1 June 1813 and immediately engaged the Royal Navy frigate SHANNON in a fierce battle. Captain Lawrence, mortally wounded by small arms fire, ordered "Don't give up the ship" as he was carried below. However, his crew was overwhelmed by British boarders shortly afterwards. James Lawrence died of his wounds on 4 June, while CHESAPEAKE was being taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, by her captors. His body was later repatriated to New York for burial.

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History of USS LAWRENCE:

USS LAWRENCE - a CHARLES F. ADAMS-class guided-missile destroyer built by New York Shipbuilding at Camden, New Jersey - was laid down on October 27, 1958, launched on February 27, 1960, and commissioned on January 6, 1962. Following acceptance and a shakedown that included operations on the Great Lakes, she reported to Norfolk for Atlantic Fleet duty and, in October 1962, joined the naval quarantine of Cuba with the cruiser group built around USS CANBERRA (CAG 2) and USS NEWPORT NEWS (CA 148), shadowing suspect traffic until the crisis eased. She returned to Norfolk on December 6, 1962.

On February 6, 1963, she began her first Mediterranean deployment with the Sixth Fleet and remained until July 1, 1963, before completing an overhaul at Norfolk that winter. A second Med cruise followed from April to August 1964. Through 1965-1968, she alternated Atlantic training with further Mediterranean tours - August 24 to December 17, 1965; September 27, 1966, to February 1, 1967; and January 10 to May 4, 1968 - interspersed with a NATO North Atlantic exercise from August 3 to September 5, 1966. During the 1968 tour she rescued crewmen from the merchant ship NEW MEADOW off Crete. Two more Sixth Fleet periods in 1969 and 1971 completed the ship's first decade as a regular East Coast air-defense escort and Med deployer.

In 1972, LAWRENCE shifted to the Western Pacific for combat duty off Vietnam. From 1972 into 1973 she provided naval gunfire support, stood plane-guard for carriers on Yankee Station, and conducted search-and-rescue support during Operation Linebacker, earning a Meritorious Unit Commendation before returning to the Atlantic. In 1974, she circumnavigated Africa to reach the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, a pattern that presaged her late-Cold-War balance of Mediterranean rotations and out-of-area commitments. She resumed Sixth Fleet operations in 1977-1978 and again in 1979, the latter cruise including a brief Black Sea foray during a period of heightened U.S.-Soviet naval signaling. In 1980, she transited via the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf as the Navy maintained a sustained presence in the wake of the Iran hostage crisis, then returned to the region in 1983-1984 for another extended deployment spanning the Med, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Gulf.

In 1986, LAWRENCE circumnavigated South America during UNITAS XVII, serving as flagship for Destroyer Squadron 26 and exercising with partner navies from Puerto Rico and Panama down the Pacific coast through Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, then north via Uruguay and Brazil. This multinational series combined anti-submarine, air-defense, and replenishment drills with extensive port engagement to strengthen interoperability with regional fleets.

The destroyer spent much of 1987 in Atlantic training and upkeep at Norfolk, resetting after UNITAS and preparing for renewed forward tasking. By October 10, 1988, photographs place LAWRENCE pier-side at the destroyer and submarine piers at Naval Station Norfolk alongside the frigate USS McCLOY (FF 1038) as she completed final preparations for her last overseas employment.

In 1989, LAWRENCE deployed once more across the Mediterranean into the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf, conducting presence operations, screening duties, and routine logistics evolutions in a theater that remained central to U.S. maritime security interests as the Iran-Iraq War ended and post-ceasefire tensions lingered. She returned to the United States late in the year to begin inactivation preparations at Mayport and Norfolk.

After more than twenty-eight years of commissioned service, LAWRENCE decommissioned on March 30, 1990, and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on May 16, 1990. Held in the inactive fleet at Philadelphia during the 1990s while preservation groups explored museum options, she was ultimately sold for scrapping. An initial 1994 sale collapsed and the Navy repossessed the hull in October 1996 before a resale in February 1999 led to dismantling.

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Homeports of USS LAWRENCE:

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USS LAWRENCE Image Gallery:

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