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Photo # NH 94596:  USS Northampton at Brisbane, Australia, August 1941

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Northampton (CA-26, originally CL-26), 1930-1942

USS Northampton, a 9050-ton light cruiser built at Quincy, Massachusetts, was the first of a class of six similar ships. Commissioning in May 1930, she made a shakedown cruise to the Mediterranean and thereafter took part in the United States' Fleet's regular program of operations and exercises. Reclassified as a heavy cruiser in July 1931, she received a change in hull number from CL-26 to CA-26. Northampton primarily served in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas until 1932, then was mainly in the Pacific. In mid-1941, she steamed across that ocean to visit Australia.

On 7 December 1941, Northampton was at sea with the USS Enterprise task force. The next day, she entered Pearl Harbor to witness first hand the devastation caused by Japan's suprise attack. Her early wartime operations were primarily in the Hawaiian area, but in late January 1942 she went to the central Pacific, where on 1 February she bombarded Wotje, in the Marshall Islands. A second bombardment, of Wake Island, was delivered on 24 February. Northampton was unsuccessfully attacked by Japanese aircraft at that time. In March, she operated with the carrier task force that struck Marcus Island and the next month took part in the Doolittle Raid on Japan. She accompanied USS Enterprise to the south Pacific in May 1942 and escorted her through the Battle of Midway in early June.

Northampton returned to the southern Pacific in August 1942 to participate in the Guadalcanal campaign. Serving for the next two months with carrier task forces, she was present when USS Wasp was sunk by a Japanese submarine on 15 September and accompanied USS Hornet during the 26 October Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. When that carrier was disabled by enemy torpedoes and bombs, Northampton tried to tow her out of danger, but had to abandon Hornet to her fate after another air attack inflicted fatal damage.

During November, Northampton joined a cruiser-destroyer surface action group. On the night of 30 November 1942, her task force intercepted several Japanese destroyers off Guadalcanal. The resulting Battle of Tassafaronga was a shattering experience for the U.S. Navy, which received further proof of the enemy's superiority in night gun and torpedo combat. Northampton was one of four U.S. heavy cruisers hit by Japanese torpedoes. A serious fire amidships prevented damage control parties from controlling her flooding, and she sank stern-first three hours after she was hit.

USS Northampton's wreck was found and examined in 1991-92. Her hull is intact and upright on the bottom of Guadalcanal's "Iron Bottom Sound", some two-thousand feet below the surface. Her guns are still trained out to port, as they were nearly fifty years earlier when she engaged Japanese destroyers in the Battle of Tassafaronga.

This page features selected views of USS Northampton (CA-26, originally CL-26).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 50308

USS Northampton (CL-26)


Underway during builder's trials, circa Spring 1930.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 585 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 50966

USS Northampton (CA-26)


Underway during the early 1930s, prior to the removal of her torpedo tubes.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 585 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 67844

USS Northampton (CA-26)


Photographed during the later 1930s, after her forward smokestack was raised.

Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 450 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 94596

USS Northampton (CA-26)


Entering the river at Brisbane, Australia, 5 August 1941.
Note her false bow wave camouflage.

Courtesy of Perry M. Allard, 1983.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 585 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 95333

USS Northampton (CA-26)


Preparing to dock at Newcastle Wharf, Brisbane, Australia, on 5 August 1941.
Note her false bow wave camouflage.

Courtesy of James W. Fitch, 1984.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 505 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97808

USS Northampton (CA-26)


Refueling from USS Cimarron (AO-22), during the Doolittle Raid operation.
Photographed from USS Salt Lake City (CA-25).
The original photo caption states that this view was taken on 18 April 1942, the day the Doolittle Raid aircraft were launched to attack targets in Japan.
Note that Northampton's forward smokestack had been reduced in height by this time.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 83598

USS Northampton (CA-26)


Off Gonaives, Haiti, circa early 1939.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, collection of Rear Admiral Paul H. Bastedo.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 560 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-32548

USS Northampton (CA-26)


Steams into Pearl Harbor on the morning of 8 December 1941, the day after the Japanese air attack. Photographed from Ford Island, looking toward the Navy Yard, with dredging pipe in the foreground.
Northampton was at sea with Vice Admiral Halsey's task force on the day of the attack.
Note her Measure One (dark) camouflage, with a Measure Five false bow wave, and manned anti-aircraft director positions.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 50942

USS Northampton (CA-26)


Firing her after eight-inch guns, during the raid on Japanese-held Wotje, in the Marshall Islands, 1 February 1942.
Photographed from the ship's forward superstructure, looking aft on the starboard side, with 5"/25 guns and the after smokestack in the foreground.
USS Salt Lake City (CA-25) is astern.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 116KB; 740 x 630 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 50947

USS Northampton (CA-26)


Under attack by a Japanese seaplane, during the U.S. raid on Wake Island, 24 February 1942.
Photographed from USS Salt Lake City (CA-25), one of whose 1.1" machine gun mounts is in the foreground.
Note anti-aircraft shell bursts above Northampton and nearby bomb splash.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 55KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-33897

Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, October 1942


USS Northampton (CA-26), at right, attempting to tow USS Hornet (CV-8) after she had been disabled by Japanese air attacks on 26 October 1942.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 104KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 3 January 2002
Minor text change made 10 October 2005