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Photo # NH 98330:  USS Hull gets underway from Seal Beach, California, to conduct tests of her eight-inch gun, Sept. 1975

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Hull (DD-945), 1958-1998

USS Hull, a 2850-ton modified Forrest Sherman class destroyer, was built at Bath, Maine. She was commissioned in early July 1958 and transited the Panama Canal a few months later to begin a long career with the Pacific Fleet. Between April and August 1959 Hull conducted the first of her fifteen deployments to serve with the Seventh Fleet in the Western Pacific. She made three more cruises in that area in 1960, 1961-1962 and 1963-1964. During October and November 1962 the destroyer escorted Pacific-based amphibious forces to the Panama Canal Zone as part of the Navy's Cuban Missile Crisis operations. Hull's 1965 Seventh Fleet tour was the first of six Vietnam War deployments, during which she fired tens of thousands of five-inch shells in support of forces ashore and helped rescue several downed U.S. aviators.

Hull made her eleventh WestPac cruise in 1973, after the direct U.S. role in the Vietnam conflict had ended. Overhauled after that, she lost her remaining three-inch gun mount and had her forward five-inch gun replaced by an experimental eight-inch type. She conducted tests of the latter weapon during 1975-1978, and also made her twelfth and thirteenth Seventh Fleet deployments during this time. The big gun was removed in 1979, and Hull spent the rest of her days with the three five-inch gun mounts that were typical of her class.

In February-September 1981 Hull served again in Asian waters. She began her final deployment in September 1982, steaming to the Western Pacific by way of Alaska, rescuing five Vietnamese refugees at sea in October and then moving further west to serve in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea as part of the battle group built around the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise. Returning to the U.S. West Coast in April 1983, she immediately commenced inactivation preparations. USS Hull decommissioned in July 1983 and was sunk as a target in April 1998.

USS Hull was named in honor of Commodore Isaac Hull (1773-1843), a signficant Naval commander during and after the War of 1812.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have related to USS Hull (DD-945).

For more images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Hull (DD-945) -- Tests of the Mark 71 8"/55 Major Caliber Lightweight Gun, 1975-1979;
  • USS Hull (DD-945) -- Miscellaneous On Board Views; and
  • USS Hull (DD-945) -- National Archives Photos.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 98302

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Underway off the coast of Southern California, 21 October 1971.
    Photographed by PH1 B.L. Kuykendall, USN.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 605 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98303

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Underway off the coast of Southern California, 21 October 1971.
    Photographed by PH1 B.L. Kuykendall, USN.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98304

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Underway at sea, July 1973.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 115KB; 740 x 520 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98305

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Underway at sea off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, 13 July 1973.
    Photographed by Chief Photographer's Mate C.C. Curtis.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 147KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98306

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Underway in the Pacific Ocean, during initial shipboard trials of the Mark 71 8"/55 Major Caliber Lightweight Gun, 17 April 1975.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 129KB; 740 x 515 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98307

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Underway in the Pacific Ocean, during initial shipboard trials of the Mark 71 8"/55 Major Caliber Lightweight Gun, 17 April 1975.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 121KB; 740 x 520 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98308

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Underway in the Pacific Ocean, during initial shipboard trials of the Mark 71 8"/55 Major Caliber Lightweight Gun, 17 April 1975.
    Compare the size of the 8" gun mount forward with that of the two 5"/54 Mark 42 gun mounts aft.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 505 pixels

     
    Photo #: K-109549

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Underway in the Pacific Ocean, 25 June 1975.
    Note the ship's Mark 71 8"/55 gun mount forward, and two Mark 42 5"/54 gun mounts aft.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

    Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 610 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-K-109549.
    Though reproductions of this photo from the Naval Historical Center's collections are available in black & white only, those from the National Archives should be available in color.

     
    Photo #: K-109550

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Steaming alongside USS Ranger (CVA-61) in the Pacific Ocean, 25 June 1975.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

    Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 530 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-K-109550.
    Though reproductions of this photo from the Naval Historical Center's collections are available in black & white only, those from the National Archives should be available in color.

     
    Photo #: NH 98309

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Departs Naval Base Seal Beach, California, to conduct tests at sea of her 8"/55 Mark 71 gun mount, 15 September 1975.
    Photographed by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Carl R. Begy.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 127KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98330

    USS Hull (DD-945)


    Gets underway from Seal Beach, California, to conduct tests of her 8"/55 Mark 71 gun mount off San Clemente Island, 16 September 1975.
    Photographed by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Carl R. Begy.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 520 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 68390-KN (Color)

    USS Hull (DD-945)

    Jacket patch of the insignia used in 1966.

    Courtesy of Captain G.F. Swainson, USN, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 174KB; 650 x 675 pixels

     

    For more images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Hull (DD-945) -- Tests of the Mark 71 8"/55 Major Caliber Lightweight Gun, 1975-1979;
  • USS Hull (DD-945) -- Miscellaneous On Board Views; and
  • USS Hull (DD-945) -- National Archives Photos.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 31 January 2003