Guided Missile Cruiser BOSTON CAG-1
November 1955 - 1970


Click this photo to view full size painting.
The Above Painting: The USS BOSTON CAG1, the world's first guided missile cruiser, is firing a supersonic TERRIER surface-to-air missile during 1958 operations.

Watch a 1956 newsreel of the CAG-1 (39MB download).

The BOSTON earned five battle stars during the Vietnam conflict. Her shore bombardment accuracy and fire power was very popular with the US ground forces.



Built: New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, NJ
1 November 1955

Length: 673' 5"
Beam: 70' 9"
Displacement: 16,700 tons

Complement: 1200 men

Power: 4 steam boilers, 4 engines

Screws: 4

Shaft Horsepower: 120,000

Speed: 34 knots (design)

Armament: 6" belt, 8" turret faces 6-8"/50 in 2 triple turrets; 10-5"/38 in 5 twin mounts; 12-3"/50 in 6 twin mounts, 2 twin-rail Terrier surface-to-air missile launchers

The sixth BOSTON also served her country as the prototype BOSTON-class guided missile cruiser, leading the U.S. Navy into the age of high-technology weaponry as the world's first instance of a fighting ship with both heavy gunnery and accurate missilery.

Besides serving as the real-life proving ground for the Navy's missile strategies, BOSTON was an able flagship for COMCRUDIV 4 and COMCRUDESDIV 10. BOSTON participated in the 1958 campaign to rescue U.S. citizens in Beirut, Lebanon, and the 1961 Cuban Bay of Pigs operation. She stood temporary duty as the flagship of the Sixth Fleet, and completed seven long-term Mediterranean deployments and numerous North and South Atlantic tours.

BOSTON completed three tours to Vietnam, supporting Operation SeaDragon and providing high-accuracy shore bombardment against enemy emplacement and waterborne logistics craft.

BOSTON earned five more battle stars in her guided missile cruiser configuration. She was redesignated CA69 in May of 1968. BOSTON was decommissioned on May 5, 1970 and scrapped in 1974.

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