Is christened by Mrs. Fernie C. Hubbard, during launching ceremonies at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard, Camden, New Jersey, 27 February 1960. The middle photo is DDG-4's launching. The photo on the right was taken immediately after launching.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
The fifth Lawrence, a 3370-ton Charles F. Adams guided-missile destroyer built at Camden, New Jersey, was laid down 27 October 1958 by New York Shipbuilding Corp.; launched 27 February 1960; sponsored by Mrs. Fernie C. Hubbard, great-great-grand-daughter of Capt. James Lawrence; and commissioned 6 January 1962, Comdr. Thomas W. Walsh in command.
After a shakedown cruise on the Great Lakes, Lawrence proceeded to 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 Canberra (CAG-2), Newport News (CA-148), three guided-missile destroyers including Lawrence and twelve escorts. The group took up a blocking position north of Cuba on 24 October, two days into the crisis. On Friday the 26, Lawrence and MacDonough (DLG-8) began shadowing 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.
After returning to Norfolk on 6 December, 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. 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 in 1965 (24 August to 17 December), a NATO exercise in the North Atlantic in 1966 (3 August to 5 September), another Mediterranean tour in 1966-67 (27 September to 1 February) and a third Sixth Fleet cruise in 1968 (10 January to 4 May). During her fourth Mediterranean deployment, 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 1969-70 and another in 1971, the much-travelled destroyer made one Vietnam War tour in the Western Pacific in 1972-73, providing naval gunfire suport, dodging enemy return fire and serving as plane guard during aircraft carrier operations. Two more Sixth Fleet cruises followed in 1977-78 and 1979, and during the latter she briefly visited the Black Sea. During the 1974-75 cruise to the Middle East, Lawrence did not transverse the Mediterranean to get to the Middle East. The 1973 Arab/Israeli war closed the Suez Canal to US warships because the Pentagon was afraid a ship would be attacked transversing the narrow waterway and be a sitting duck. Arab sentiment was inflamed against the US because we were siding with Israel during the war. Lawrence sailed around the horn of Africa and into the Middle East. When her deployment was over, she left Mombasa, Kenya with an oiler and sailed around the horn again. The oiler left her at the Canary Islands on her way to the Mediterranean. The ship arrived in Bermuda to refuel 29 days after leaving Mombasa without a port stop. Lawrence also passed through the Mediterranean en route to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, deployments that took place in 1980 and 1983.
Lawrence also saw frequent service closer to home, in the western Atlantic and Caribbean, and occasionally visited other waters. In 1986 she steamed around South America as part of Operation Unitas XVII, exercising with Latin American navies and visiting ports in Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil.
Lawrence was decommissioned in late March 1990 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register a few months later. She was sold in April 1994, but was repossessed in October 1996 after the failure of the ship breaking firm. Following two more years in Navy custody, Lawrence's hulk was again sold for scrapping in February 1999. Around December 2003, Lawrence was moved to Metro Machine's drydock in the Philadelpia Naval Business Park, which was formally know as the Naval Shipyards, for scrapping. The last sections of Lawrence were place on a barge and taken up river to the scrapper in October of 2004.
Below are picture that were taken in March of 2004 while scrapping was underway.
DD-250: displacement 1,190 tons; length 314'5"; beam 31'8"; draft 9'3"; speed 35 knots; complement 101; armament 4 4-inch guns, 1 3-inch guns, 2 depth charge tracks, 12 21-inch torpedo tubes; class Clemson
The fourth Lawrence, a 1190-ton Clemson class destroyer built at Camden, New Jersey, was laid down 14 August 1919 by New York Shipbuilding Corp.; launched 10 July 1920; sponsored by Miss Ruth Lawrence; and commissioned 18 April 1921, Lt. Comdr. John H. Wellbrock in command.
After shakedown, Lawrence was assigned to the Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet and deployed to the Mediterranean Sea in June 1922, arriving off Constantinople on 4 July. For the next year, the destroyer cruised in the eastern Mediterranean and in the Black Sea as U.S., British, French and other Allied forces rendered aid to refugees and humanitarian crises caused by the Russian Civil War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In addition to assisting Red Cross workers and U.S. Food Administration officials in the region, Lawrence and the other destroyers of her squadron helped evacuate thousands of Greek refugees from Asia Minor which had been occuppied by Turkish troops. Lawrence returned to New York on 30 October 1923 and resumed local operations.
From late 1923 until early 1931 Lawrence served with the Scouting Fleet in the Atlantic and Caribbean, with occasional transits through the Panama Canal to take part in exercises in the Pacific. She also made several Naval Reserve training cruises and was employed off Central America in February and March during unrest in Nicaraguan Civil War in 1927. Returned to Philadelphia later that year, Lawrence decommissioned there on 6 January 1931.
Recommissioned 13 June 1932, Lt. Comdr. Thomas F. Downey in command, Lawrence sailed to San Diego, where she reported for duty on 8 September. She operated there for almost six years, conducting fleet exercises and tactical training drills until she again went out of commission on 13 September 1938.
The outbreak of World War II in Europe brought her back into the active fleet on 26 September 1939, Comdr. Horace D. Clarke in command. The rest of that year, and nearly all of 1940, saw Lawrence operating in the Caribbean and Atlantic on patrol and anti-submarine warfare training service. Returning to the Pacific on 27 December 1940 and later assigned to the Sound School at San Diego, she began convoy escort work soon after the United States entered the Second World War on 7 December 1941. During much of 1942 she shepherded shipping along the West Coast, steaming from San Francisco as far north as the Aleutian Islands. From September 1942 until the end of the war, Lawrence provided patrol and escort services out of San Francisco. On 31 May 1944 she rescued nearly 200 men from the steamship Henry Bergh, which had gone aground in the nearby Farralon Islands. Sent to the East Coast in late August 1945, Lawrence was decommissioned at Philadelphia on 24 October 1945 and sold to Boston Metal Co., Baltimore, Md., for scrapping on 1 October 1946.
US Brig Lawrence I
Brig: displacement 493 tons; length 109'9"; beam 16'3"; depth 4'8"; complement 134; armament 2 long 12-pounders, 18 short 32-pounder carronades
Lawrence was one of two 493-ton Niagara-class brigs built at Presque Isle (Erie), Pennsylvania, by Adam and Noah Brown under the supervision of Sailing Master Daniel Dobbins and Capt. Oliver H. Perry for Navy service on the Great Lakes during the War of 1812.
Lawrence was launched 24 May 1813 and fitted out at Erie with the other ships of Perry's newly built squadron while awaiting the arrival of her crew. On 9 August, Capt. Jesse D. Elliott and some 100 men arrived and helped man the squadron, which sailed on 12 August. The squadron sailed to Detroit and located the British lake squadron soon thereafter.
During the 10 September 1813 Battle of Lake Erie, Lawrence served as flagship for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry until she was disabled by enemy fire. Perry then transferred to the Brig Niagara, from which he fought the battle to a successful conclusion. In mid-1815, following the end of hostilities, Lawrence was sunk in Misery Bay, near Erie, in order to preserve her hull. Her submerged hulk was sold in 1825 and, except for a brief examination in 1836, remained underwater for nearly four more decades. In September 1875 her remains were raised, cut into sections and transported by rail to Philadelphia, where she was displayed during the 1876 exhibition celebrating the Centennial of the United States. The ship was accidently destroyed by fire during that exhibition.
US Brig Lawrence II
Brig: displacement 364 tons; length 109'9"; depth 13'3"; complement 80; armament 2 32-pounders, 8 short 32-pounder carronades
The second Lawrence was launched by Langley B. Culley at Baltimore 1 August 1843 and commissioned 19 September 1843, Comdr. William H. Gardner in command.
After sailing to the Norfolk Navy Yard on 11 October 1843, Lawrence fitted out for a cruise to the West Indies. Underway 16 November, the ship cruised along the northern coast of South America until returning to Pensacola, Fla., 25 January 1844. She began a second cruise on 5 February, visiting Havana, Cuba, before proceeding north to Hampton Roads 8 March for repairs at the Norfolk Navy Yard.
As tensions escalated in the Gulf of Mexico, Lawrence sailed south to join the Home Squadron on 14 June. She spent the next year cruising along the Gulf Coast, providing security to American shipping in the region and helping suppress piracy. After war broke out following a clash of arms in Texas on 25 April 1846, Lawrence cruised on a blockade station off the Mexican coast, remaining there until 17 June. In the interim, the brig landed sailors to help protect Point Isabel on 31 April. Lawrence's usefulness was limited by a deep draft that limited her to deeper water, as well as limited cargo space, and the brig was ordered to New York, arriving there via Pensacola on 3 September.
The brig decommissioned at New York on 12 September 1846 and was sold at Boston later in the year.
Destroyer No. 8: displacement 430 tons; length 246'3"; beam 22'3"; draft 6'8"; speed 30 knots; complement 72; armament 2 3-inch guns, 5 6-pounder guns, 2 18-inch torpedo tubes; class Lawrence
The third Lawrence, first of a two-ship class of 400-ton destroyers built at Weymouth, Massachusetts, was laid down 10 April 1899 by Fore River Ship & Engine Co.; launched 7 November 1900; sponsored by Miss Ruth Lawrence, great-niece of Capt. James Lawrence; and commissioned 7 April 1903, Lt. Andre M. Proctor in command.
Assigned to the 2d Torpedo Flotilla, Lawrence served along the East Coast and in the Caribbean for over four years, taking part in training and exercises off New England in the summer and out of Key West, Fla., in the winter. She decommissioned at Philadelphia 14 November 1906.
Recommissioned on 23 July 1907, Lawrence resumed operations with the Torpedo Flotilla out of Norfolk until the following spring, when the flotilla conducted a long voyage around South America to San Diego to support the circumnavigation of the world by the battleships of the "Great White Fleet." Arriving there on 28 April 1908 she helped escort the battleships into San Francisco Bay on 6 May.
Assigned to the 3d Torpedo Flotilla, Lawrence served on the Pacific Coast for nearly a decade, patrolling as far north as Canada and south to Panama. The destroyer served off Mexico during the summer of 1914, protecting American and foreign nationals during the unrest accompanying the Mexican revolution. Following the United States' entry into the First World War in April 1917, Lawrence moved to Central America, where she protected the entrances to the Panama Canal out of Balboa. This duty lasted until the end of May 1918, when she was transferred to Key West, Florida. Early in 1919, with the "Great War" at an end, she steamed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she remained until decommissioning 20 June. The old warship was sold to Joseph G. Hitner of Philadelphia on 3 January 1920.