FFG 58 Leaves Bath Iron Works For Sea Trials
Launched in December 1984, USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58), a Perry-class guided missile frigate, was ready for sea trials in early 1986. The frigate got underway from the Bath Iron Works shipyard on 4 February 1986, only the second time the ship had left the yard.
Sea trials were conducted over the next few days under the careful eye of Vice Adm. (ret.) Joseph Bulkeley, head of the Navy's Board of Inspection. The results were exceptional: the report from the crusty old admiral called FFG 58 "one of the cleanest [of its class] that the Board has seen."
U.S. Navy photos by Bath Iron Works
Roberts leaves the Maine shipyard.
Roberts noses through winter ice on the Kennebec River on its 10-mile journey from Bath to the Atlantic Ocean.
Roberts passes old Fort Popham near the Kennebec's mouth.
Roberts tries out its gas turbine engines in the Atlantic.
Roberts' port quarter view.
Late afternoon on the Roberts' first day of sea trials.
More FFG 58 info
About The Book
No Higher Honor is the first book to detail the extraordinary tale of the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) and the crew's heroic efforts to save the ship after it hit an Iranian mine in 1988. Drawing on years of research and scores of interviews, Bradley Peniston chronicles the origins of the Perry-class frigate; the crew's training; its operations in the Persian Gulf; the U.S. retaliation against Iran, which became the biggest surface battle since World War II; and the complex repairs that returned the ship to duty.
Published by Naval Institute Press, the 275-page book contains 20 photos, several diagrams of the damage, and a muster list of the shipmates aboard the Roberts during its fight for survival.
