Крейсер «Марблхед» класса «Омаха»

Omaha class light cruiser

USS Marblehead (CL 12) was an light cruiser, originally classified as a scout cruiser, of the United States Navy. She was the third Navy ship named for the town of Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Marblehead was authorized on 1 July 1918, and assigned to William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia on 24 January 1919. She was laid down on 4 August 1920, and launched on 9 October 1923, sponsored by Mrs. Joseph Evans. Marblehead was commissioned on 3 November 1923, with Captain Chauncey Shackford in command. Marblehead was 550 feet (168 m) long at the waterline with an overall length of 555 feet (169 m), her beam was 55 feet (17 m) and a mean draft of 13 feet (4 m). Her standard displacement was and at full load. Her crew, during peace time, consisted of 29 officers and 429 enlisted men. The ship lacked a full length waterline armor belt. The sides of her boiler and engine rooms and steering gear were protected by of armor. The transverse bulkheads at the end of her machinery rooms were thick forward and three inches thick aft. The deck over the machinery spaces and steering gear had a thickness of 1.5 inches. The gun turrets were not armored and only provided protection against muzzle blast. The conning tower had 1.5 inches of armor.

During her career Marblehead went through several armament changes, some of these changes were to save weight, but others were to increase her AA armament. The lower torpedo tube mounts proved to be very wet and were removed, and the openings plated over, before the start of World War II. Another change made before the war was to increase the 3 inch guns to eight; all were mounted in the ship's waist. After 1940, the lower aft guns were removed and the casemates plated over for the same reason as the lower torpedo mounts. The ship's anti aircraft armament were augmented by three twin Bofors guns along with twelve Oerlikon cannons by the end of the war. in search of complete repairs. Still steering with her engines, she made Trincomalee, Ceylon on 21 February. Repairs could not be made there or anywhere in India for several weeks, so Marblehead departed for South Africa on 2 March. After touching at Durban and Port Elizabeth, Marblehead arrived at Simonstown on 24 March. There she underwent extensive repairs and on 15 April, sailed for New York. Steaming via Recife, Brazil, she finally arrived in New York on 4 May, completing a journey of over 16000 mile (25749 km) from where she was damaged in action and immediately entered drydock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

On 15 October, the rebuilt Marblehead again put to sea. Attached to the South Atlantic Force, she operated against the enemy in the South Atlantic from Recife and Bahia, Brazil, until February 1944. Returning to New York on 20 February, she operated along the convoy lanes of the North Atlantic for the next five months. She then sailed for the Mediterranean. Arriving at Palermo on 29 July, she joined the task force then staging for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. From 15 to 17 August, the cruiser bombarded enemy installations in the vicinity of Saint Raphael, where Allied assault troops were landing. On 18 August, she withdrew to Corsica, her mission complete.

Marblehead returned to the United States, conducted a summer training cruise for Naval Academy midshipmen and then entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where she decommissioned on 1 November 1945. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 November, and her hull was scrapped on 27 February 1946.