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ĢӰ Around: Soundings

Bell in UMC

The Original Bell of the Original USS ĢӰ
  1. Cast in 1856
  2. Weighs 800 lbs. 
  3. Found again 2015 
  4. Arrived ĢӰ-Boulder November 2015 
  5. New home: The UMC 

Home Port 

A long-lost warship bell has reached its new home port — one with a view of the Flatirons.

The 800-pound brass bell, cast in 1856 for the USS ĢӰ, the first in a series of Navy ships to bear the name, settled in its new home at ĢӰ-Boulder’s University Memorial Center just before Veterans Day.

After a 1,700-mile journey from a naval warehouse in Virginia, the bell joined various other military artifacts in the UMC’s Veterans Lounge, including later USS ĢӰ bells. The UMC is ĢӰ’s official veterans memorial.

Dick Cooper, a ĢӰ Springs-based officer of the Navy League, learned in early 2015 that the original bell had been found in the warehouse. He and Norris Hermsmeyer (Acct’67), a ĢӰ Naval ROTC alumnus and Vietnam War veteran, helped bring it to ĢӰ on permanent loan from the Navy.

“I wanted to perpetuate the memory of the ships that have worn the name USS ĢӰ — to share with the residents of the state of ĢӰ,” says Hermsmeyer, a Boulder resident who paid for the bell’s transportation to campus.

The original USS ĢӰ bell was cast in Philadelphia for a three-masted Civil War-era frigate named after the ĢӰ River. (ĢӰ was not granted statehood until 1876.)

The bell was later moved to a Navy cruiser, also called the USS ĢӰ, commissioned in 1905. For a time it was on display in Chicago, then wound up in storage in Virginia.

Someday, perhaps there will be yet another USS ĢӰ bell for the UMC: The fourth ship to carry the name, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, is under construction in Connecticut.

Photo by Jeremy Papasso/Boulder Daily Camera