USS Chester (CL-1)

USS Chester (CS-1), port view underway, undated.
History
United States
Name:	Chester (1905–1928) York (1928–1930)
Namesake:	City of Chester, Pennsylvania City of York, Pennsylvania
Ordered:	27 April 1904
Awarded:	4 May 1905
Builder:	Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
Cost:	$1,688,000 (contract price of hull and machinery)
Laid down:	25 September 1905
Launched:	26 June 1907
Sponsored by:	Miss D. W. Sproul
Commissioned:	25 April 1908
Decommissioned:	10 June 1921
Renamed:	York, 10 July 1928
Reclassified:	CL-1, 17 July 1920
Identification:	Hull symbol:CS-1 Hull symbol:CL-1
Fate:	sold for scrap, 13 May 1930
General characteristics (As built)
Class and type:	Chester-class Scout cruiser
Displacement:	3,750 long tons (3,810 t) (standard) 4,687 long tons (4,762 t) (full load)
Length:	423 ft 1 in (128.96 m) oa 420 ft (130 m) pp
Beam:	47 ft 1 in (14.35 m)
Draft:	16 ft 9 in (5.11 m) (mean)
Installed power:	12 × Normand boilers 23,000 ihp (17,000 kW) 25,400 ihp (18,900 kW) (produced on Trial)
Propulsion:	4 × Direct drive Parsons turbines 4 × screws
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) 26.52 knots (49.12 km/h; 30.52 mph) (Speed on Trial)
Complement:	42 officers 326 enlisted
Armament:	2 × 5 in (127 mm)/50 caliber Mark 6 breech-loading rifles 6 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber rapid-fire guns (6x1) 2 × 3-pounder (47 mm (1.9 in)) Driggs-Schroeder saluting guns 2 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 2 in (5.1 cm) Deck: 1 mm (0.039 in) (aft)
General characteristics (1917)
Complement:	63 officers 332 enlisted
Armament:	4 × 5 in (127 mm)/51 caliber guns 2 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber rapid-fire guns 1 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber anti-aircraft gun 2 × 3-pounder (47 mm (1.9 in) saluting guns 2 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes

USS Chester (CS-1/CL-1) of the United States Navy was the first scout cruiser built for the U.S. Navy. In 1920 she was reclassified as a light cruiser. She was launched on 26 June 1907 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, sponsored by Miss D. W. Sproul, and commissioned on 25 April 1908, Commander H. B. Wilson in command. She was named in honor of Chester, Pennsylvania.

In the period prior to World War I, Chester operations included training activities off the East Coast and in the Caribbean, participation in the Fleet Reviews of February 1909, October 1912, and May 1915, and many duties of a diplomatic nature. She carried a Congressional committee on a tour of North Africa in 1909, and the next year, joined in a special South American cruise commemorating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Buenos Aires, Argentina. As American interests in the Caribbean were threatened by internal political changes in several nations, Chester patrolled off Mexico, Santo Domingo, and Haiti, and transported a Marine occupation force in 1911. Later that year, she carried men and stores to the steam patrol yacht Scorpion, station ship at the then-Austrian port of Trieste, returning to Boston with the American consul at Tripoli.

In April, 1912, Chester was ordered by the United States Navy to escort Carpathia back to New York, after Carpathia had picked up the survivors from the sinking of RMS Titanic.