Chester-class cruiser
USS Chester as built
|
|
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Chester class |
| Builders: | |
| Operators: |
 United States Navy
|
| Succeeded by: | Omaha class |
| Built: | 1905–1908 |
| In commission: | 1908–1923 |
| Completed: | 3 |
| Scrapped: | 3 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type: | Scout cruiser |
| Displacement: |
|
| Length: | 423.1 ft (129.0 m) |
| Beam: | 47.1 ft (14.4 m) |
| Draft: | 16.8 ft (5.1 m) |
| Installed power: |
|
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 24 kn (27.6 mph; 44.4 km/h) (design) |
| Complement: | 359 |
| Armament: |
|
| Armor: |
|
The three Chester-class cruisers were the first United States Navy vessels to be designed and designated as fast "scout cruisers" for fleet reconnaissance. They had high speed but little armor or armament. They were authorized in January 1904, ordered in fiscal year 1905, and completed in 1908. In 1920 all scout cruisers were redesignated as "light cruisers" (CL).
Birmingham was the first ship in the world to launch an airplane, in 1910 with pilot Eugene Ely, who also performed the first landing on a ship the following year, on USS Pennsylvania. The class patrolled the Caribbean prior to World War I, sometimes supporting military interventions, with Chester playing a key role at the start of the United States occupation of Veracruz in 1914. The ships escorted convoys in World War I. The class was decommissioned 1921-1923 and sold for scrap to comply with the limits of the London Naval Treaty in 1930.
The three Chesters were the US Navy's only ships to be commissioned with the "scout cruiser" (hull classification symbol non-standard at the time, CS or SCR are sometimes used) designation, and were characterized by high speed and little armor or armament. They were also the last cruisers of any type built for the US Navy until the first Omaha-class cruisers were laid down in 1917 (the Navy concentrated on building dreadnought battleships and destroyers in the interim). The first three Omaha-class ships were also designated "scout cruisers" (CS or SCR) when ordered, but before any were launched the Navy revised its classification system and they and the Chesters became "light cruisers" (CL).
The as-built armament included two 5 in (127 mm)/50 caliber Mark 6 guns, six 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber rapid fire (RF) guns, and two 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes. The original design featured a uniform gun armament of twelve 3-inch guns, which was supported by the Navy's General Board as simplifying fire control and echoing the uniform main and secondary armaments of dreadnought battleships. However, two 5-inch guns were substituted for six of the 3-inch guns, apparently to enable the scout cruisers to fight foreign light cruisers. Notably, for the first time in US cruiser design smaller caliber weapons (6-pounder and smaller) were not fitted.
...
Wikipedia