Recognition Guide Warships of the Second World War
United States Navy — Cruiser CA-37

USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37)

New Orleans-class cruiser

USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37)
Unknown author — U.S. Navy photo NH 97939 — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons Plate — CA-37 The U.S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) off the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania (USA), on 10 November 1944. She is wearing Camouflage Measure 32, Design 13D.

Service

  1. United States Navy as Tuscaloosa17 August 1934 — 13 February 19462,193 days of the war
Full service history About 5,304 words
New Orleans-class cruiser Particulars
Name
USS Tuscaloosa
Pennant / hull number
CA-37
Namesake
City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Builder
New York Shipbuilding, Camden, New Jersey
Ordered
13 February 1929
Laid down
3 September 1931
Launched
15 November 1933
Commissioned
17 August 1934
Decommissioned
13 February 1946
Struck
1 March 1959
Fate
Sold for scrap 25 June 1959 (1959)
Status
Scrapped

Specifications — As built

Displacement, standard
9,975 long tons (10,135 t)
Length
179.22 m (588 ft) OA
Beam
18.59 m (61 ft)
Draught
5.79 m (19 ft)
Speed
32.7 knots (60.6 km/h, 37.6 mph)
Complement
866
Main gun
203 mm (8 in)

Tuscaloosa (CA-37) was laid down on 3 September 1931 at Camden, N.J., by the New York Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 15 November 1933; sponsored by Mrs. Thomas Lee McCann, wife of Lt. Thomas L. McCann and the niece of the Hon. William B. Oliver, Representative of the 6th District of Alabama; and commissioned on 17 August 1934, Capt. John N. Ferguson in command.

Tuscaloosa devoted the autumn to a shakedown cruise which took her to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, before she returned to the New York Navy Yard shortly before Christmas. She then underwent post-shakedown repairs which kept her in the yard into March 1935.

The heavy cruiser soon shaped a course for the west coast. After a stop at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she transited the Panama Canal on 7 and 8 April and then steamed north to San Diego, where she joined Cruiser Division (CruDiv) 6 in time to participate in Fleet Problem XVI staged in May in the northern Pacific off the coast of Alaska and in waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands. This operation was divided into five distinct phases which might be aspects of some real naval campaign of the future in which the United States would take the strategic offensive.

Continue to the full service history About 5,304 words

From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Tuscaloosa I (CA-37)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.

Armament and machinery

This vessel is recorded in 2 configurations. Wartime refits changed armament and complement substantially, so each is kept separately rather than averaged into one set of figures. The figures above are as built.

As built
Propulsion
  • 4 × Parsons reduction steam turbines
  • 4 × Propellers
Power
  • 8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers
  • 107000 shp
Armament
  • 9 × 8 in/55 caliber guns (3x3)
  • 8 × 5 in/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns
  • 2 × 3-pounder 47 mm saluting guns
  • 8 × caliber 0.50 in machine guns
Armour
  • Belt: 3-5 in
  • Deck: 1+1/4 - 2+1/4 in
  • Barbettes: 5 in
  • Turrets: 1+1/2 - 8 in
  • Conning Tower: 5 in
Aircraft
  • 4 × floatplanes
1945
Main gun
203 mm (8 in)
Armament
  • 9 × 8 in/55 caliber guns (3x3)
  • 8 × 5 in/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns
  • 2 × 3-pounder 47 mm saluting guns
  • 6 × quad 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns
  • 28 × single 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons

Sister ships

Sources

  • Facts harvested from USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) on Wikipedia. Figures only — no wording is taken from it.
  • Service history reproduced verbatim from Tuscaloosa I (CA-37) , Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships — public domain, a work of the United States Government.
  • Photograph: Unknown author — U.S. Navy photo NH 97939 — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons