Engineering:St. Louis-class cruiser (1938)

USS St. Louis (CL-49)
Class overview
Name:	St. Louis class
Builders:	Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company Brooklyn Navy Yard
Operators:	United States Navy Brazilian Navy
Preceded by:	Brooklyn class
Succeeded by:	Atlanta class Cleveland class
Completed:	2
Lost:	1
Retired:	1
General characteristics
Type:	Light cruiser
Displacement:	10,000 long-tons (standard) 13,327 long-tons(Full)
Length:	608.3 ft (185.4 m)
Beam:	61.7 ft (18.8 m)
Draft:	19.8 ft (6.0 m)
Propulsion:	8 boilers 4 geared turbines 4 screws 100,000 hp (74,570 kW)
Speed:	33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Complement:	888
Armament:	15 × 6"/47 caliber gun (5x3) 8 × 5 in/38 caliber guns 4 × quad 1.1 in/75 caliber guns 12 × 20 mm Oerlikon cannons 1 ×Depth charge track
Armor:	Belt: 3–5 in (76–127 mm) Deck: 2 in (51 mm) Turrets: 1.25–6.5 in (32–165 mm) Barbettes 6 in (150 mm) Conning tower: 2.25–5 in (57–127 mm)
Aircraft carried:	4 Curtiss SOC Seagulls
Aviation facilities:	2 aft catapults

The St. Louis-class cruisers were a pair of light cruisers that served in the United States Navy during World War II.

Background

The St. Louis class was a slight modification of the seven-ship Brooklyn class that immediately preceded them, incorporating new higher pressure boilers and a new boiler arrangement, with machinery on the "unit system": alternating boiler and engine rooms to prevent a ship from being immobilized by a single unlucky hit. Additionally, AA armament was improved. They were the first US cruisers to be armed with twin five-inch (127 mm) 38-caliber guns. They could be distinguished visually from the Brooklyns by the placement of the after deckhouse, immediately abaft the second funnel, and by the twin 5-inch mounts.

Both ships were commissioned in 1939, and were active in the Pacific in World War II. Helena was sunk in 1943 during the Battle of Kula Gulf. The remains of the ship were discovered below the surface of New Georgia Sound by Paul Allen's research ship Petrel in April 2018. St. Louis was seriously damaged twice, but survived the war and was transferred to the Brazilian Navy in 1951, where she served until 1976.

St. Louis-class ships

Ship name	Hull No.	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Decommissioned	Fate
St. Louis	CL-49	Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company	10 December 1936	15 April 1938	19 May 1939	20 June 1946	Transferred to Brazilian Navy as Tamandare, 29 January 1951
Helena	CL-50	Brooklyn Navy Yard	9 December 1936	27 August 1938	18 September 1939	N/A	Torpedoed and sunk, 6 July 1943

See also

• St. Louis-class cruiser (1905), earlier class of protected cruisers with the same name.

External links

• Global Security.org - St. Louis class cruiser
• Global Security.org - St. Louis class cruiser specifications