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Photo # 19-N-44440:  USS Trenton underway in the Gulf of Panama, 11 May 1943

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

USS Trenton (CL-11), 1924-1946

USS Trenton, a 7050-ton Omaha class light cruiser built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in April 1924. Beginning in late May of that year, she cruised the Mediterranean and Red Seas and entered the Persian Gulf. After her return to the U.S. in September, Trenton operated out of Norfolk, Virginia. In mid-October she suffered a gun turret explosion that took the lives of several of her crewmen, two of whom were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroic attempts to avert the tragedy.

Trenton went to the Pacific for fleet maneuvers in February 1925, remaining there to take part in the Battle Fleet's mid-year cruise across the Pacific to visit Australia and New Zealand. From then into 1928, the ship served mainly with the Scouting Fleet in the Atlantic and Caribbean. She had two missions to Nicaragua during this time as part of efforts to bring peace to that troubled country. Returning to the Pacific in March 1928, she took part in Battle Fleet exercises and then steamed west to serve a year with the Asiatic Fleet. Trenton was assigned to the Scouting Fleet and the Special Service Squadron from 1929 until 1933, was in the Pacific in 1933-34 and had another tour in Latin American waters with the Special Service Squadron in 1934-35. She was back in the Pacific for Battle Force duty in 1936-39 and made a second visit to Australia in 1938.

In June 1939, Trenton became part of Squadron 40-T, serving in the Mediterranean area during and after the outbreak of World War II. She came back to the United States in mid-1940 and late in the year went to the Pacific, where she remained for the rest of her active career. In 1941-44, she was part of the Southeast Pacific Force, operating along the west coast of South America and among the Southern Pacific island groups. Trenton went to the much chillier environment of the Aleutians in mid-1944. For the next year she patrolled in the North Pacific, participated in anti-shipping sweeps and several times bombarded Japanese bases in the Kuril Islands area. Two months after the Second World War's end, the now-elderly light cruiser was sent through the Panama Canal to Philadelphia, where she was placed out of commission shortly before the end of 1945. USS Trenton was sold for scrapping in December 1946.

This page features selected views of USS Trenton (CL-11).

For a picture and information concerning an officer who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the 20 October 1924 gun turret explosion on USS Trenton, see:

  • Ensign Henry Drexler, USN.


    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 43751

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    Photographed circa the mid-1920s.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 92KB; 740 x 580 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 76226

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    In drydock, circa the mid-1920s.
    Photographed by Gustave Freret.
    Note that Trenton appears to have hydrophone fairings on both sides of her underwater hull, a short distance aft of the stem.

    Donation of Lieutenant Gustave Freret, USN (Retired), 1972.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 72KB; 560 x 765 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 94168

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    Flagship of Commander Light Cruiser Divisions, Scouting Fleet, underway at sea in April 1927. She has the Assistant Secretary of the Navy on board.

    Collection of Lieutenant Oscar W. Levy, USN (Supply Corps)-Retired.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 575 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 64632

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    At anchor, possibly at San Diego, California, circa the middle 1930s.

    Donation of Franklin Moran, 1967.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 109KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 50251

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    Underway at sea, 23 October 1935

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 107KB; 740 x 605 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 82489

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    In Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, circa 1939.
    Photographed by Tai Sing Loo.
    Trenton is carrying SOC floatplanes on her catapults.

    Donation of the Oregon Military Academy, Oregon National Guard, 1975.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 146KB; 740 x 495 pixels

     
    Photo #: 19-N-44436

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    Underway off Bona Island in the Gulf of Panama, 11 May 1943.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-44440

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    Underway in the Gulf of Panama, 11 May 1943.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 90KB; 740 x 600 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-68655

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    Underway in the Gulf of Panama, 14 July 1944.
    She is wearing camouflage Measure 33, Design 2f.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 107KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-91697

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    In San Francisco Bay, California, 11 August 1944.
    She is wearing camouflage Measure 33, Design 2f.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 590 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: NH 83568

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    View on deck, just aft of the forward superstructure, while the ship was at Alexandria, Egypt, probably in 1924.
    The after legs of the ship's tripod foremast are in the background, and a boat cradle is in the right foreground.

    Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 420 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 82495

    USS Trenton (CL-11)


    Crewmembers packing parachutes, circa 1939.

    Donation of the Oregon Military Academy, Oregon National Guard, 1975.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 510 pixels

     


    For a picture and information concerning an officer who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the 20 October 1924 gun turret explosion on USS Trenton, see:

  • Ensign Henry Drexler, USN.


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


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 6 August 2002
    Link added 30 January 2008