Shipmate Lou Lockwood found the following picture and article about the "first" Des Moines in a copy of the Daisy Mae. It was published in the August 26, 1960 issue of the DAISY MAE, Vol VIII (no issue number listed), on the rear page.
FIRST USS DES MOINES
THE FIRST OF THE TWO - USS DES MOINES (CL-17) was nothing like her successor in the way of firepower and exterior appearance, but she has seen many years of colorful service in just about the same places as the present Des Moines has been. She also spread her share of "goodwill." Both of the Des Moines were built by the Bethlehem Steel Company of Quincy, Massachusetts.
After being commissioned as cruiser #15 on March 4, 1904, and during the following year, served in the Caribbean, Europe, and the North Atlantic protecting American interests. The following two years she conducted survey work in the West Indies and Central America. In 1910 and 1911 she was ordered to Liberia to investigate conditions there and then spent the next three years in Mexico and West Indies waters. Between 1915 and 1917 she was stationed in Syria, and then recalled to the United States and assigned to duty protecting convoys across the Atlantic during World War I. In 1919 she served as flagship of Commander Naval Forces, Russia, at Archangel and returned to the U.S. via France and England. She was back patrolling Mexican waters in 1920 and later that year she was ordered to Valparaiso, Chile to participate Magellan Celebration.
She was decommissioned the next year on April 21, 1921. During her many years of service her number changed three times from her original cruiser number 15 to Gunboat number 29 and then to Light Cruiser number 17. After being stricken from the Navy list on December 13, 1929 she was sold in March of 1930.
