Commissioned by Rear Adm. Wilder D. Baker on July 27, 1949, the USS Recruit was the Navy’s only non-sailing ship that was officially commissioned. It was the first of three similar structures built by the Navy following World War II and is the sole survivor.

It was originally built as a two-thirds scale mock up of a training destroyer escort with standard Navy fittings obtained from salvaged and mothballed ships. Operating as a standard Navy ship, sailors learned marlinspike seamanship skills and observed traditional Naval shipboard procedures on its decks.

Decommissioned in 1967, when it could not be classified in a Naval inventory, the USS Recruit nevertheless continued to train recruits and was reconditioned in 1982, as a training guided missile frigate.

On August 13, 2005, the USS Recruit was designated as a California state historic landmark. Also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the USS Recruit’s renovation is headed by The Corky McMillin Companies, master developer of Liberty Station.

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Click to visit the USS Recruit image gallery.