By the order of a descendant of the USS Sterett’s namesake, over 200 sailors and officers raced from the dock of the Locus Point Terminal in Baltimore, up the gangplanks and onto the hulking gray destroyer, lining her railings.
The Sterett’s cannon roared, its horn blasted and its gizmos whirled as its flags were raised for the first time.
In the fading Saturday evening light, the Sterett – with steep connections to Baltimore history – became an official U.S. Navy warship.
“This is the finest warship the Navy has ever built,” said Cmdr. Brian Eckerle, the Sterett’s commander.
The Sterett, a $1.4 billion 500-foot Arleigh Burke-class destroyer manned with the latest arsenal, will now set sail for its home port in San Diego by way of the Panama Canal.
And from the rhetoric of the Navy officials speaking at the commissioning ceremony, the Sterett could very well see action in the near future.
That has some sailors’ wives apprehensive, but Saturday afternoon they set their worries aside to enjoy the ceremony.
“We don’t know what’s in store for them, but it’s what they signed up for. We’re here to support them,” said Candy Treat of Indian Head, Md., whose husband Chief Petty Officer Todd Treat serves on the Sterett.
The manning of the ship and bringing it to life is part of Navy commissioning tradition, but this ship got extra attention in Baltimore.
The ship is named after Andrew Sterett, a Baltimore native who in a short seven-year naval career in the late 18th century asserted himself as an early hero of the fledgling U.S. Navy.
He served on the USS Constellation – not the ship docked in the Inner Harbor, but its precursor – when the ship defeated the French warship L’Insurgente, the U.S. Navy’s first ever victory. That Constellation was built by Sterett’s family.
Caretakers of the existing 1850s Constellation tugged the ship to Locus Point and docked it facing the Sterett for the ceremony.
As part of the commissioning ceremony, a Sterett descendant dressed in 18th century navy garb acted as Andrew Sterett’s spirit, and was asked to board the ship from the Constellation.
“You’re following in the footsteps of a great hero – show yourself worthy of this ship,” said Secretary of the Navy Donald Winters.
And it was another Sterett descendant, Michelle Sterett-Bernson, who gave the command for the ship’s officers to come on board. Her daughter Amelia was to be christened in the ship’s bell today.
The 2,000 people in attendence were given a history of both the ship and man named Sterett by the state, federal and military officials speaking during the ceremony.
Gov. Martin O’Malley presented the Sterett crew with a pewter punch bowl as a gift from the state.
“You’ll always get a good old-fashion Baltimore welcome to greet you in your new hometown,” said U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.
The ship commissioned Saturday is the fourth destroyer to bear the Sterett name since 1910, and veterans from the second and third ships were in attendance.
The Sterett was the first Navy warship commissioned in Baltimore – a major producer of schooners and frigates in the Navy’s early days – in more than a quarter-century.
Other Navy ships to be commissioned in Baltimore:
- USS Antietam – In 1987, the cruiser was the last warship to be commissioned in Baltimore. Named after the famous Civil War battle in western Maryland, the Antietam served in the first Gulf war.
- USS Raven – Commissioned in Baltimore in 1998, the Raven was named after the famous poem by Edgar Allen Poe, who is buried in Baltimore. Though not considered a warship, the Raven was designed to seek out mines with sonar and a robotic submarine.
The Sterett was built faster than the previous 50 ships in its class and is one of the “most complete ships,” that Maine-based Bath Iron Works has ever built, said Dugan Shipway, the company’s president.
Two of the Sterett’s sailors were born and raised in Maryland – Daniel O’Neil of Kensington and Torell Beulah of Greensboro on the Eastern Shore.
