What A Waste! The U.S. Navy Just Blew Up A Very Useful Old Warship

On Aug. 17, 23 warships from 10 countries gathered off the coast of Hawaii for the U.S. Navy’s biennial Rim of the Pacific war game. The two-week exercise came to a dramatic conclusion on Sunday with the explosive sinking of an old Navy cargo ship.

A very useful old Navy cargo ship. So useful that it was a shame to watch her sink.

As RIMPAC came to a close, the allied fleet surrounded the Charleston-class amphibious cargo ship Durham. The fleet pummeled the 575-foot-long Durham with five missiles—three Harpoons, an Exocet and a Hellfire missile—plus cannon rounds.

Durham sank in no less than 6,000 feet of water. Her sinking left the Navy with three old Charlestons, all laid up in reserve and slowly rusting away.

Which is too bad. The Charlestons and ships like them are a cheap way of hauling a lot of landing craft into battle. Today’s active fleet still can carry landing craft. But fewer of them. And at much higher cost.

The Navy developed amphibious cargo ships during World War II, initially adding guns, radios, winches and cranes to existing merchant vessels. The ships anchored near enemy beaches, winched their landing craft into the water then craned cargo into those craft.

The Charlestons are the ultimate amphibious cargo ships. At a price marginally higher than the cost of a civilian merchant vessel, they could transport a whopping 12 LCM-type landing craft. By comparison, today’s $2-billion San Antonio-class landing ships can carry just nine LCMs in their well-decks.

The amphibious cargo ships have kingposts and davits. Kingposts essentially are big cranes for quickly moving cargo. Davits hold, and winch, landing craft. A vessel with kingposts and davits in essence is a self-contained, floating port. No active U.S. Navy ship combines these systems.

The Navy built five Charlestons between 1966 and 1969. They fought in Vietnam and during the 1991 Gulf War before decommissioning in the early 1990s as part of wider naval cut-backs.

The fleet sank another Charleston in a 2018 exercise. Durham’s destruction leaves three Charlestons in reserve. It’s likely all will play the victim in some future war game. And then there will be no American amphibious cargo ships left.