Engineering:Oregon City-class cruiser

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Short description: Heavy cruiser class
USS Rochester on 20 September 1953
Class overview
Name: Oregon City class
Builders: Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Fore River Shipyard
Operators: United States Navy
Preceded by: Script error: The function "sclass" does not exist.
Succeeded by: Script error: The function "sclass" does not exist.
Subclasses: Script error: The function "sclass" does not exist.
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:
  • 664 ft (202 m) wl
  • 673 ft 5 in (205.26 m) oa
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:
  • AN/SPS-6 air-search radar
  • AN/SPS-8A height-finding radar
Armament:
  • As Built:
  • 3 × triple 8"/55 caliber guns
  • 6 × twin 5"/38 caliber guns
  • 11 × quad and 2 x twin Bofors 40 mm guns
  • 8 × single Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
  • Post-1953 (Albany, Rochester):
  • 3 × triple 8"/55 caliber guns
  • 6 × twin 5"/38 caliber guns
  • 10 × twin 3"/50 caliber guns
Aircraft carried: 4 × Vought OS2U Kingfishers
Aviation facilities:
  • 2 × aircraft catapults
  • Helipad (later conversion)

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).

Design and development

The Oregon City-class cruisers were a modified version of the previous Script error: The function "sclass" does not exist. 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 Script error: The function "sclass" does not exist. and Script error: The function "sclass" does not exist. classes, and to a lesser degree the Script error: The function "sclass" does not exist. and Script error: The function "sclass" does not exist. classes of light cruisers.[1]

History

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 missing name. 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 Script error: The function "sclass" does not exist. and served until 1980. A similar conversion was planned for Rochester but was cancelled.

Ships in class

Ships in class[2]
Name Hull Number Builder Laid down Launched Commissioned/
Recommissioned 		Decommissioned Fate
missing name 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
missing name 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
missing name CA-124 29 May 1944 28 August 1945 20 December 1946 15 August 1961 Struck 1 October 1973; Sold for scrap, 24 September 1974
missing name 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 N/A 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 N/A 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
  • USS Oregon City
    USS Oregon City
  • USS Albany
    USS Albany
  • USS Rochester
    USS Rochester
  • USS Northampton
    USS Northampton

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Albany was converted to a guided missile cruiser and as such was in commission from 1962 to 1980, but this was a totally different class of ship than an all-gun heavy cruiser. Northampton was decommissioned in 1970, but was completed as a command ship. Rochester, the last of the Oregon City class "gun cruisers" was decommissioned in 1961.

References

  1. ↑ Norman Friedman, U.S. Cruisers, An Illustrated Design History 1984 Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers". [page needed]
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Whitley 1999, p. 269.
  3. ↑ Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 578.

Bibliography

  • Gardiner, Robert and Stephen Chumbley (editors). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995. Annapolis, Maryland US: Naval Institute Press, 1995. Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers"..
  • Whitley, M.J. Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Brockhampton Press, 1999. Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers".,



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