USS Des Moines

 November 2011 Cover of the Month

USS DES MOINES (Protected Cruiser No. 16)
John Young (#L-8219)

Registered cover from J.S. Abbott, USS DES MOINES to S.S. Pierce Co., Boston, Mass franked with two 5 cents Washington stamps to cover (registered mail rate) and canceled with ship type 9v cancel 9 SEP 1909. Addressee was one of Boston’s Importer & Grocer that probably supplied the ship’s officer’s mess and envelope may have been payment to be sent registered. Only 10-25 known copies of this (R-2) cancel.

Note: An officer, CDR John S. Abbott commanded the destroyer USS PEARY (DD 226) on the Asiatic Fleet in July, 1923.

A 308-foot Denver class protected cruiser was commissioned on March 4, 1904 with a complement of 339 officers and enlisted men. DES MOINES was assigned with the 3 rd Squadron, Atlantic Fleet and operated from Boston (1906-10) before going into reserve status for modernization in December 1911.

Re-commissioned in September 1912, the cruiser served on escort duty with transports during World War I and was the flagship of the naval forces in Northern Russia in 1919.

Originally classified a gunboat (PG 29) in July 1920, she was decommissioned in April 1921. Its designation was changed to Light Cruiser (CL 17) in August 1921. but she was sold and scrapped in March 1930.