USS Canberra (CA-70)
USS Canberra underway
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| History | |
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 United States of America
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| Name: | Canberra |
| Namesake: | Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra (D33) and Australian capital city Canberra |
| Ordered: | 1 July 1940 |
| Builder: | Fore River Shipyard |
| Laid down: | 3 September 1941 |
| Launched: | 19 April 1943 |
| Sponsored by: | Alice, Lady Dixon, the wife of Sir Owen Dixon |
| Commissioned: | 14 October 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | 7 March 1947 |
| Recommissioned: | 15 June 1956 |
| Decommissioned: | 2 February 1970 |
| Reclassified: |
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| Struck: | 31 July 1978 |
| Nickname(s): | "Can-Do Kangaroo" |
| Honors and awards: |
Seven battle stars (World War II) |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap to National Metal on 31 July 1980 |
| Badge: |  |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: |
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| Displacement: | 13,600 tons |
| Length: | 673 ft 5 in (205.26 m) |
| Beam: | 70 ft 10 in (21.59 m) |
| Draught: | 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam turbines, 4 × 615-psi boilers |
| Speed: | 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph) |
| Complement: | 1,142 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
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USS Canberra (CA-70/CAG-2) was a Baltimore-class cruiser and later a Boston-class guided missile cruiser of the United States Navy. Originally to be named USS Pittsburgh, the ship was renamed before launch to honor the loss of the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra during the Battle of Savo Island. USS Canberra is the only USN warship named for a foreign warship or a foreign capital city.
The ship entered service in 1943, and served in the Pacific theater of World War II until she was torpedoed during the Aerial Battle of Taiwan-Okinawa and forced to return to the United States for repairs. Placed in reserve after the war, Canberra was selected for conversion into the second guided-missile carrying warship in the USN fleet. Following the conversion, she was host to the ceremony for selecting the Unknown Soldier representing World War II in 1958, undertook an eight-month round-the-world cruise in 1960, participated in the Cuban Missile Crisis naval blockade in 1962, and was deployed to the Vietnam War on five occasions between 1965 and 1969.
Canberra was decommissioned in 1970, struck in 1978, and broken up in 1980. One of her propellers is preserved at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, while the ship's bell was donated to the Australian National Maritime Museum in 2001.
The Baltimore-class heavy cruiser was laid down as USS Pittsburgh by the Bethlehem Steel Company Fore River Shipyard at Quincy in Massachusetts on 3 September 1941. During construction, in recognition of the valor displayed by the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra during the Battle of Savo Island, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wished to commemorate the Australian ship's loss by naming a US ship in her honor: Pittsburgh was selected and renamed USS Canberra. The ship was launched on 19 April 1943 by Alice, Lady Dixon, the wife of Sir Owen Dixon, Australia's ambassador to the United States, and is the only United States warship to be named after a foreign warship or a foreign capital city.Canberra was commissioned into the USN on 14 October 1943, Captain Alex Rieman Early, USN commanding. The Australian Government returned this tribute by naming a new Tribal-class destroyer, HMAS Bataan, in honor of the US stand during the Battle of Bataan.
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