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U.S. Navy WWII-era heavy cruiser class From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Oregon City-class was a class of heavy cruisers of the United States Navy. Although ten ships of this class were planned, only four were completed – one of those as a command ship. The three ships completed as cruisers were in commission from 1946 to 1980, one having been converted to a guided missile cruiser (CG).
![]() USS Rochester on 20 September 1953 | |
Class overview | |
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Name | Oregon City class |
Builders | Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Fore River Shipyard |
Operators | ![]() |
Preceded by | Baltimore class |
Succeeded by | Des Moines class |
Subclasses | Albany class |
Built | 1944–1951 |
In commission | 1946–1961[note 1] |
Planned | 10 |
Completed | 4 |
Cancelled | 6 |
Retired | 4 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Heavy cruiser |
Displacement | 13,260 long-tons (standard) |
Length | |
Beam | 70 ft 10 in (21.59 m) |
Draft | 26 ft 4 in (8.03 m) |
Propulsion | General Electric steam turbines turning 120,000 hp (89,000 kW) |
Speed | 32.4 knots (60.0 km/h; 37.3 mph) |
Boats & landing craft carried | 2 × lifeboats |
Complement | 1,142 officers and enlisted |
Sensors and processing systems | |
Armament |
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Armor | 6 Inch belt armor |
Aircraft carried | 4 × Vought OS2U Kingfishers |
Aviation facilities |
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The Oregon City-class cruisers were a modified version of the previous Baltimore-class design; the main difference was a more compact pyramidal superstructure with single trunked funnel, intended to improve the arcs of fire of the anti-aircraft (AA) guns. The same type of modification also differentiated the Cleveland and Fargo classes, and to a lesser degree the Atlanta and Juneau classes of light cruisers.[1]
Ten ships were authorized for the class with three being completed and the fourth suspended during construction. The final six ships were cancelled, five after being laid down.[2] Construction on the incomplete fourth ship was resumed in 1948 and the ship served as a command ship Northampton (CLC-1). All three completed cruisers were commissioned in 1946. Oregon City was decommissioned after only 22 months of service, one of the shortest active careers of any World War II-era cruiser. Albany was later converted into a guided missile ship, becoming the lead ship of the Albany class and served until 1980. A similar conversion was planned for Rochester but was cancelled.
Name | Hull Number | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned/ Recommissioned |
Decommissioned | Fate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oregon City | CA-122 | Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts | 8 April 1944 | 9 June 1945 | 16 February 1946 | 15 December 1947 | Struck 1 November 1970; Sold for scrap, 17 August 1973 |
Albany | CA-123 | 6 Mar 1944 | 11 Jun 1945 | 15 June 1946 | 30 June 1958 | Converted to Guided Missile Cruiser[3] Struck 30 June 1985; Sold for scrap, 12 August 1990 | |
CG-10 | 3 November 1962 | 29 August 1980 | |||||
Rochester | CA-124 | 29 May 1944 | 28 August 1945 | 20 December 1946 | 15 August 1961 | Struck 1 October 1973; Sold for scrap, 24 September 1974 | |
Northampton | CA-125 | 31 August 1944 | 27 January 1951 | 7 March 1953 | 8 April 1970 | Converted to command ship during construction – Struck and sold for scrap, 31 Dec 1977 | |
CLC-1 | |||||||
Cambridge | CA-126 | 16 December 1944 | — | Cancelled 12 August 1945 and scrapped on slip | |||
Bridgeport | CA-127 | 13 January 1945 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 and scrapped on slip | ||||
Kansas City | CA-128 | 9 July 1945 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 and scrapped on slip | ||||
Tulsa | CA-129 | — | Cancelled 12 August 1945 | ||||
Norfolk | CA-137 | Philadelphia Naval Shipyard | 27 December 1944 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 and scrapped on slip | |||
Scranton | CA-138 | 27 December 1944 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 and scrapped on slip |