USS Raleigh (CL-7)

USS Raleigh (July 1942)
History
United States
Name	Raleigh
Namesake	City of Raleigh, North Carolina
Ordered	29 August 1916
Awarded	21 August 1917 12 June 1919 (supplementary contract)
Builder	Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts
Laid down	16 August 1920
Launched	25 October 1922
Sponsored by	Miss Jennie Proctor
Completed	1 August 1921
Commissioned	6 February 1924
Decommissioned	2 November 1945
Stricken	28 November 1945
Identification	Hull symbol: CL-7 Code letters: NIRT
Honors and awards	3 × battle star
Fate	Sold for scrap, 27 February 1946
General characteristics (as built)[1][2]
Class and type	Omaha-class light cruiser
Displacement	7,500 long tons (7,620 t) (standard) 9,508 long tons (9,661 t) (full load)
Length	555 ft 6 in (169.32 m) oa 550 ft (170 m) pp
Beam	55 ft (17 m)
Draft	14 ft 3 in (4.34 m) (mean)
Installed power	12 × Yarrow boiler 90,000 shp (67,000 kW) (designed horse power)
Propulsion	4 × Curtis steam turbines 4 × screws
Speed	35 kn (65 km/h; 40 mph) (designed speed) 33.7 kn (62.4 km/h; 38.8 mph) (Estimated speed on Trial)
Crew	29 officers 429 enlisted (peace time)
Armament	2 × twin 6 in (152 mm)/53 caliber guns 8 × single 6 in/53 caliber guns 2 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber anti-aircraft guns 2 × triple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 2 × twin 21 in torpedo tubes 224 × mines
Armor	Belt: 3 in (76 mm) Deck: 1+1⁄2 in (38 mm) Conning Tower: 1+1⁄2 in Bulkheads: 1+1⁄2-3 in
Aircraft carried	2 × Curtiss SOC Seagulls and later 2 × Vought OS2U Kingfishers
Aviation facilities	2 × Amidship catapults crane
General characteristics (1945)[3]
Armament	2 × twin 6 in/53 caliber 6 × single 6 in/53 caliber 8 × 3 in/50 caliber anti-aircraft guns 2 × triple 21 in torpedo tubes 3 × twin 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors guns 8 × single 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon cannons

USS Raleigh (CL-7) was the fourth Omaha-class light cruiser, originally classified as a scout cruiser, built for the United States Navy. She was the second Navy ship named for the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, the first being the protected cruiser Raleigh, commissioned in 1894, and decommissioned in 1919.

Raleigh spent most of her pre-war career in the Atlantic. Her first duty was to assist in the USAAS's first aerial circumnavigation of the world in 1924. In 1936, Raleigh joined Squadron 40-T in neutrality patrols during the Spanish Civil War where she would serve until 1938, when she would be transferred to the Pacific. This led her to be fatefully moored in Pearl Harbor at berth F-12 on the morning of 7 December 1941, where she took a torpedo in her No.2 boiler room and claimed five victories with her anti-aircraft batteries with no loss of life.