Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Several United States Navy ships have borne the name Charleston, after the town of Charleston, South Carolina. The first Charleston was a galley mounting one 24-pounder gun, identical to Mars (length 52 ft, breadth 15 ft, depth 5.1 ft, complement 28). She was built at Charleston in 1798, commanded by "Captain-of-a-Galley" James Payne, and used to defend the coast of South Carolina during the Quasi-War with France. The ship was sold in Charleston around 1 February 1802. The second Charleston (C-2) was a protected cruiser commissioned 1889 and which captured Guam in 1898 but was wrecked the following year. The third Charleston (C-22) was a protected cruiser that served from 1905 to 1923. The fourth Charleston (PG-51) was a patrol boat used in World War II. The fifth(?) Charleston (LKA-113) (originally AKA-113) was an amphibious cargo ship commissioned 1968 and decommissioned 1992, and mothballed at Portsmouth, Virginia. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.