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N7KTP > NAVNET 07.11.05 20:59l 39 Lines 2121 Bytes #999 (0) @ USA
BID : 46648_N7FSP
Read: GUEST
Subj: USS PORTSMOUTH (CL-102)
Path: ON0AR<ON0AR<HS1LMV<TU5EX<VE2RXY<W4JAX<N9ZZK<WA7V<N7FSP
Sent: 051107/1246z @:N7FSP.#SEA.#WWA.WA.USA.NOAM West Seattle, WA. on 145.010
Cruiser Portsmouth operated mainly in the Mediterranean
By FRED MILES WATSON-Managing Editor-Northwest Navigator
The Cleveland-class light cruiser USS Portsmouth (CL102) was built at
Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va., and was
Commissioned June 25, 1945 with Capt. Heber B. Brumbaugh as her first
commanding officer.
She displaced 10,000-tons and was just above 610feet in length.
With a draft of 20 feet, there were 992 Sailors serving in Portsmouth. The
Cruiser's machinery room had geared turbines that produced l00,000 Shaft
horsepower to four screws that in turn could propel the ship to a top speed
of of around 33 knots. Armament consisted of 12, six-inch and 12, five-inch
gunmounts as well as 16, 40mm and 10, 20mm antiaircraft gunmounts.
After shakedown operations off Cuba, Portsmouth was based at Norfolk,
and was used for the Operational Development Force until the spring of 1946.
In May, she departed on a goodwill cruise to Africa and after visiting
Capetown, Lagos, Freetown, Monrovia, Dakar, and Casablanca, steamed into the
Mediterranean for port calls at Naples, and Palermo before heading home. On
Nov. 25, she departed for a cruise to the Mediterranean. Arriving at Naples
on Dec. 7. She moved around the peninsula to Trieste at the end of the month
and until February 1947 cruised in the Adriatic Sea. The following month she
returned for another two weeks at Trieste and in April she sailed for the
United States. The following November she again steamed east to the
Mediterranean, returning to the East Coast for overhaul at Boston on March
11, 1948. On completion of overhaul she resumed type exercises off the
eastern seaboard and conducted Naval Reserve training cruises to the
Caribbean. On March 9, 1949, she entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for
an inactivation overhaul.
She was decommissioned on June 15, 1949 and joined the Atlantic Reserve
Fleet and into 1970 remained a unit of that fleet, berthed at Philadelphia.
She was stricken from the Navy Register on Jan. 15, 1971. She was sold
for scrapping on March 21, 1974.
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