USS Canberra (CA-70)

Named in honor of the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra , which sank after receiving heavy damage during the Battle of Savo Island on 9 August 1942. Canberra was also the first U.S. Navy cruiser to bear the name of a foreign capital.

Pittsburgh (CA-70) was laid down on 3 September 1941 at Quincy, Mass., by Bethlehem Steel Corp.; renamed Canberra on 16 October 1942, a little over two months after the Australian warship’s loss off Savo Island; launched on 19 April 1943; and sponsored by Lady Alice C. Dixon, the wife of Sir Owen Dixon, the Australian Minister to the United States.

Canberra was commissioned on 14 October 1943, at the Boston [Mass.] Navy Yard, Capt. Alexander R. Early, USN, in command. The following month, on 25 November, she stood out from Boston and headed to the Caribbean Sea to commence her shakedown training. The heavy cruiser briefly stopped over at Norfolk, Va., from 29 November to 3 December, and then arrived in her primary training area in the Gulf of Paria, Port of Spain, Trinidad, British West Indies, on 8 December. Following several weeks of rigorous training the warship got underway for Norfolk, arriving there on the 27th. A few days later, on 31 December, Canberra pulled into the South Boston Dock Yard for her post-shakedown overhaul.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Canberra I (CA-70)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.