The Navy’s newest guided-missile destroyer, the future USS Thomas Hudner, is scheduled to be introduced to the active fleet Saturday during a commissioning ceremony in South Boston.
The 510-foot-long ship arrived at Flynn Cruiseport Boston via Castle Island Monday morning in preparation for the ceremony.
After the keel-laying and christening, the event is the final significant step before the vessel formally enters Navy service, the ship’s commissioning committee said in a statement.
“The climax of the ceremony will be when the sponsors give the ship’s crew the orders to board the ship,’’ said Michael Raney, a commissioning support public affairs specialist. “The crew will run aboard the ship. . . . It kind of signifies that the ship has been accepted for service into the active fleet.’’
The ship’s commanding officer, Commander Nathan Scherry, and the ship’s 310 officers and enlisted personnel will accept the duties of running and maintaining the destroyer as the commissioning pennant is raised for the first time around 10 a.m., Saturday, officials said.
“They’ve put in a lot of work to get it ready,’’ Raney said. “There’s a lot of pride in that. It’s their ship, they’re proud of the work they put in, they’re proud to represent the namesake, and they’re proud to represent the people of Boston.’’
The ship, which was built in Bath, Maine, is the namesake of the late Captain Thomas J. Hudner Jr. A Fall River native, Hudner was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1951, about four months after he intentionally crash-landed his plane into a snowy mountain in an attempt to save a mortally wounded wingman, Ensign Jesse Brown, during the Korean War.
Brown was the first African-American naval pilot to be killed in combat.
Before Hudner died last November at age 93, he wrote a letter to Ray Mabus, former secretary of the Navy, asking him to consider naming a new destroyer after Brown.
“As our nation once again struggles with racial division, we could send a strong message by remembering Jesse in this manner,’’ Hudner wrote. “It would show that in our Navy, men and women of all colors are accepted as equals.’’
The future USS Thomas Hudner will be the 66th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be commissioned into the Navy. The multimission ship can engage in antiair, antisubmarine, and antisurface warfare, according to the commissioning committee.
It has a 66-foot-long beam and a navigational draft of 30 feet. It is capable of moving at speeds of more than 30 knots, thanks to four gas turbine engines driving twin propellers. The ship’s home port will be Jacksonville, Fla.
The last Navy ship to be commissioned in Boston was the USS Sampson, in 2007.
The ship will be open for the public to visit for free on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The commissioning ceremony will be live-streamed at https://www.navy.mil/ah_online/live/ah-live.asp
Andres Picon can be reached at andres.picon@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @andpicon.
