USS New Orleans (CA-32)

History
USS New Orleans (CA-32), steams through a tight turn in Elliott Bay, Washington, on 30 July 1943, following battle damage repairs and overhaul at the Puget Sound Navy Yard.
United States
Name:	New Orleans
Namesake:	City of New Orleans, Louisiana
Ordered:	13 February 1929
Awarded:	12 July 1929 (date assigned to ship yard) 2 June 1930 (beginning of construction period)
Builder:	Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York
Cost:	$12,000,000 (limit of price)
Laid down:	14 March 1931
Launched:	12 April 1933
Sponsored by:	Miss Cora S. Jahncke
Commissioned:	15 February 1934
Decommissioned:	10 February 1947
Reclassified:	CA-32, 1 July 1931
Struck:	1 March 1959
Identification:	Hull symbol:CL-32 Hull symbol:CA-32 Code letters:NABJ
Nickname(s):	NO Boat
Honors and awards:	17 × battle stars American Defense Service Medal American Campaign Medal Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal
Fate:	Sold for scrap 22 September 1959
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	New Orleans-class cruiser
Displacement:	9,950 long tons (10,110 t) (standard)
Length:	588 ft (179 m) oa 574 ft (175 m) pp
Beam:	61 ft 9 in (18.82 m)
Draft:	19 ft 5 in (5.92 m) (mean) 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m) (max)
Installed power:	8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 107,000 shp (80,000 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × Westinghouse geared turbines 4 × screws
Speed:	32.7 kn (37.6 mph; 60.6 km/h)
Capacity:	Fuel oil: 1,650 tons
Complement:	96 officers 819 enlisted
Armament:	9 × 8 in (203 mm)/55 caliber guns (3x3) 8 × 5 in (127 mm)/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns 2 × 3-pounder47 mm (1.9 in) saluting guns 8 × caliber 0.50 in (13 mm) machine guns
Armor:	Belt: 3–5 in (76–127 mm) Deck: 1 ¹⁄₄–2 ¹⁄₄ in (32–57 mm) Barbettes: 5 in (130 mm) Turrets: 1 ¹⁄₂–8 in (38–203 mm) Conning Tower: 5 in (127 mm)
Aircraft carried:	4 × floatplanes
Aviation facilities:	2 × Amidship catapults
General characteristics (1945)
Armament:	9 × 8 in (203 mm)/55 caliber guns (3x3) 8 × 5 in (127 mm)/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns 2 × 3-pounder47 mm (2 in) saluting guns 6 × quad 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns 28 × single 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons
Aviation facilities:	1 × Amidship catapult

USS New Orleans (CL/CA-32) was the lead New Orleans-class cruiser in service with the United States Navy. The New Orleans-class cruisers were the last U.S. cruisers built to the specifications and standards of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Such ships, with a limit of 10,000 tons standard displacement and 8-inch calibre main guns may be referred to as "treaty cruisers." Originally classified a light cruiser, because of her thin armor, she was reclassified, soon after being laid down, a heavy cruiser, because of her 8-inch guns. The term "heavy cruiser" was not defined until the London Naval Treaty in 1930.

New Orleans keel was laid on 14 March 1931 at the New York Navy Yard, commonly known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The ship was launched on 12 April 1933, sponsored by Cora S. Jahncke, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana and daughter of Ernest L. Jahncke, a civil engineer and president of the Jahncke Shipbuilding Co. in New Orleans. Jahncke had served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the administration of President Herbert Hoover, returning to private life in March 1933 with the inauguration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. New Orleans was commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 15 February 1934, with Captain Allen B. Reed as the first commander. Attending the commissioning ceremonies were Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., Commandant of the New York Naval Yard and former Assistant Navy Secretary Jahncke. Among New Orleans' junior officer plankowners in 1934 were Jahncke's son, Ensign E.L. Jahncke, Jr. and Ensign T.H. Moorer, who as Admiral Thomas H. Moorer was Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) from 1967–1970 and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1970–1974.

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