USS Port Royal (CG-73)

USS Port Royal (CG-73): The Last Ticonderoga

Commissioned on 9 July 1994, USS Port Royal was the final Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser , the 27th and last Aegis cruiser built for the United States Navy, and if current plans hold, the last American warship to carry the CG designation. She was named for Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, where on 7 November 1861 Flag Officer Samuel Du Pont's Union naval force bombarded two Confederate forts and secured the first major Union amphibious success of the Civil War, opening Port Royal as a deep-water base for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. The battle demonstrated that warships could reduce shore fortifications that conventional military wisdom considered impregnable, changing the calculus of coastal defense for the rest of the war.

Port Royal had a memorable moment of her own on 5 February 2009, when she ran aground on a reef near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, during a routine transit. The grounding caused approximately $40 million in damage. The commanding officer and executive officer were both relieved. The incident was investigated and attributed to a failure of navigation watchstanding procedures. Port Royal was repaired and returned to service, serving through subsequent deployments despite the career consequences the grounding imposed on her leadership.

As the last Ticonderoga built, Port Royal represents the end of a class that transformed surface warfare. When the last Ticonderoga decommissions, the cruiser designation will leave the United States Navy for the first time since 1883. The mission continues in DDG(X). The hull classification ends with CG-73.

Tactically Acquired's USS Port Royal (CG-73) collection honors the last Aegis cruiser built and the full 27-ship class she closes out , the most capable surface combatants of the twentieth century.