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February 15, 1934, the Commissioning of the Heavy Cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York


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Not surprisingly, the early 1930s was not a robust time for the US Navy to modernize its fleet or build new ships. The 10,000 ton treaty cruisers mandated by the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922 and the London Naval Treaty in 1930 meant there were no battleships commissioned between 1923 and 1941. The few under construction in the 1920s were either scrapped or converted to fledgling aircraft carriers. Coupled with this size limitation, appropriations were scarce during the depths of the Great Depression.

In February 1929, Congress had authorized fifteen new cruisers, five to be started that year (one of which was to be the New Orleans assigned to New York (Brooklyn) Navy Yard) and five more during each of the succeeding two years. President Hoover suspended pre-construction work on the 1929 cruiser program from July 1929 to May 1930 in an effort to revive disarmament talks with Great Britain. The 1929-"heavy cruisers" were redesigned in the London Treaty, dropping from ten to nine 8 guns, with the reduction in weight enabling modifications to their armor and propulsion design, further delaying construction. "Light cruisers" were those with 6" guns. By the end of President Herbert Hoover's administration just three of the ships had received funding, the last in January 1933.

USS New Orleans (CA-32) keel was not laid until March 14, 1931. Present that day were Hoovers Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Ernest Lee Jahncke, Sr., CDR James O. Gawne, Superintendant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and RADM Louis R. DeSteigeur, Commandant of the 3rd Naval District and the Brooklyn Naval Yard who riveted the first spike. For Jahncke, a Tulane-educated mechanical engineer and president of a shipyard that bore his family name, it was a matter of hometown pride. His German immigrant father, Fritz, sold cement in the late 1800s in New Orleans. Needing sand to make cement he secured rights to dredge the Tchefuncte River. With a fleet of barges and tugs to haul the sand and shells to the cement plant in New Orleans, he built his first shipyard on the river where he could repair them.

Understandably, E. L. Jahncke took special interest in the third navy ship that would bear the name of his hometown. It was a family affair. Well before Franklin Delano Roosevelts inauguration in March 1933 and Jahncke's departure from Washington, it had been decided that his daughter, 18- year old Cora Stanton Jahncke, great-granddaughter of Lincolns secretary of war, Edwin N. Stanton, would sponsor the cruiser New Orleans (CA-32) when the ship was launched April 12, 1933 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. USS New Orleans was the first of scores of US Navy ships launched during FDRs twelve year presidency.

Miss Cora Stanton Jahncke, daughter of former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Ernest Lee Jahncke, Sr., sponsor of the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) launched April 12, 1933 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

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Captain Allen Bevins Reed, coming off three years shore duty at Naval Operations in Washington, DC was originally slated to be commanding officer of New Orleans’ sister ship, USS Minneapolis, whose keel was laid down at the Philadelphia Navy Yard three months after New Orleans’ keel was laid. However, Reed’s assignment was changed to “duty connection NEW ORLEANS” and he reported to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for fitting out the new cruiser on August 15, 1933.

Those were lean times at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for the men who built ships in America. After New Orleans slid into the East River, the hull workers had only the destroyer USS Hull (DD-350) on the ways, its keel-laid almost the same day as FDR's inauguration. But at only one-fifth the cruiser’s size, jobs were scarce for ship workers. Hull’s sister-ship, USS Dale (DD-353), did not have her own keel-laying until February 1934, when she replaced Hull on the building ways. Pre-assembly began on the gunboat Erie (PG-50) in the summer of 1934 and only minimal pre-assembly had progressed on the newly-awarded light cruiser USS Brooklyn (CL-40) by the end of 1934. These latter two vessels did not receive their ceremonial first rivets until December 1934 and March 1935. The launching and commissioning of the heavy cruiser New Orleans was proud news for a nation in the doldrums of the depression, particularly those in Brooklyn who heavily relied on the navy shipyard for their livelihood.

 

USS New Orleans (CA-32) builder’s plaque, ship’s bell and postal cover commemorating the ship’s launch.

 

The builder's plaque is inscribed:

 

“USS NEW ORLEANS -CA 32- THE U.S.S. NEW ORLEANS BUILT BY THE NAVY YARD, NEW YORK AND LAUNCHED ON APRIL 12, 1933 IS NAMED FOR THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA AND IS THE THIRD VESSEL OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY TO HAVE THIS NAME. THE FIRST NEW ORLEANS WAS STARTED IN 1814 BUT NEVER COMPLETED. THE SECOND NEW ORLEANS WAS A CRUISER WHICH WAS FORMERLY THE AMAZONAS AND WAS PURCHASED FROM THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT IN 1898 AND SERVED IN THE UNITED STATES NAVY UNTIL 1930.”

 

Ship’s bell from the second USS New Orleans and presented to the heavy cruiser New Orleans by the Louisiana State Museum in 1933. The bell is inscribed:

 

“PRESENTED TO THE U.S.S. NEW ORLEANS BY THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS, LA AS A TOKEN OF THEIR APPRECIATION OF THE HONOR OF HAVING A VESSEL OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY NAMED AFTER THEIR CITY.”

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FDR had been assistant secretary of the navy during World War I, as had his distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt fifteen years earlier. FDR’s mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, attended the launching of USS New Orleans (CA-32) in April 1933 as did a distant relative, Henry L. Roosevelt, who had been appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy to replace E. L. Jahncke the previous month. But Jahncke’s connection to the USS New Orleans (CA-32) did not end with Roosevelt’s replacement or even after his daughter, Cora, sponsored the ship’s launch the month after he left Washington to return to New Orleans. Eleven months later, on a bitterly cold February 15, 1934, as ice floes drifted in the East River, Jahncke stood proudly on the deck of the Navy’s newest heavy cruiser between RADM Yates Stirling, Jr. , Commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard/ 3rd Naval district and USS New Orleans’ first commanding officer, Captain Allen B. Reed, who read his orders and took delivery of the ship from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Commissioning of the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, February 15, 1934, Captain Allen B. Reed, commanding. Photo from left to right shows: (unknown RADM), RADM Yates Stirling, Jr., Ernest Lee Jahncke, Sr., CAPT Allen B. Reed, (unknown CAPT), CDR James O. Gawne, CDR Mark L. Hersey, Jr. (Executive Officer). Visible in the right background is the 3rd Naval District Receiving Ship, the old armored cruiser USS Seattle (ex- USS Washington).

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Among USS New Orleans’ plank owners standing on deck that day, were Jahncke’s youngest son, ENS E. L. Jahncke, Jr. and ENS T. H. Moorer. A distinguished naval aviator in World War II, two decades later Admiral Thomas Hinman Moorer served as the Chief of Naval Operations during the height of the Vietnam War in 1967-70 and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1970-74. A footnote about Ernest Lee Jahncke, Sr.- two years later he was in the news when the International Olympic Committee expelled him from the Committee for his strong protest of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the first and only time such action has ever been taken.

 

Captain Allen B. Reed (USNA 1904), USS New Orleans’ (CA-32) first commanding officer. The heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) was Reed's seventh sea command, his first having been nearly 30 years earlier in 1905 when he commanded the gunboat USS Paragua as a newly commissioned ensign during the Moro Rebellion in the Philippines. Coincidentally, RADM Yates Stirling, Jr., the Commandant of the 3rd Naval District and the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1934 when USS New Orleans was commissioned had also commanded USS Paragua in the Philippines a few years prior to Reed.

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Graduation photos of Naval Academy (Class of 1933) midshipmen Ernest L. Jahncke, Jr. and Thomas Hinman Moorer, who were plank owner ensigns on the newly commissioned USS New Orleans (CA-32) during 1934-35. Photo of ADM Thomas H. Moorer as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the early 1970s.

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Captain Allen B. Reed, first Commanding Officer of USS New Orleans (CA-32) and signed commissioning day postal cover from the Brooklyn Navy Yard Receiving Ship, USS Seattle.

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Captain Reed commanded USS New Orleans until August 30, 1935. During those eighteen months, the cruiser made a shakedown cruise in May and June 1934 to England, Denmark, Holland and Sweden. In July and August 1934, USS New Orleans escorted USS Houston (CA-30) carrying FDR on a presidential cruise across the Pacific to Hawaii and back to Portland, Oregon before transiting the Panama Canal to return to the East Coast. It was the first visit to Hawaii by a US President. In late March and April 1935, New Orleans paid a visit to the city whose name she bore while en route to join Cruiser Division 6 based at San Pedro, California. From late April to June 1935, USS New Orleans participated in Fleet Problem XVI, the largest mock naval battle ever staged, ranging between Midway Island, Hawaii and the Aleutians, before she joined 140 other navy vessels at San Diego for the first-ever Fleet Week. From there, USS New Orleans returned to CruDiv 6 at San Pedro, California where she was based until summer 1936 when the cruiser returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for maintenance.

1/350 scale model of USS New Orleans (CA-32) as she appeared in 1934-35.

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World War II and Pearl Harbor were still several years away. Pearl Harbor, where on December 7, USS New Orleans and her sister- ship , USS San Francisco were the only two heavy cruisers present. At the time of the attack New Orleans was berthed while her engines were being repaired. With no ships’ power, her “Sky Pilot” (chaplain) Howell Forgy urged on crewmen manually passing ammo in a “bucket line” with his famous words, “Praise the Lord- and pass the ammunition!” Most of us over 50 are familiar with the melody set to those words that helped rally our parents and grandparents to the grim task ahead of them 75 years ago.

 

Dark days. Three of the six sisters of USS New Orleans—USS Astoria (CA-34), USS Vincennes (CA-44) and USS Quincy (CA-39) were lost in the space of minutes at the horrendous Battle of Savo Island in August 1942. New Orleans became the lead ship in her class, the New Orleans- class heavy cruisers, with the demise of Astoria. The remaining four ships, went on to survive the duration of the war, though not before USS Minneapolis (CA-36) and New Orleans lost their bows within seconds of each other to Japanese long lance torpedoes at the Battle of Tassafaronga in November 1942. 183 men died on the New Orleans that day. That same month, USS San Francisco (CA-38) took a terrible pounding at the Solomons. New Orleans- class heavy cruisers amassed 64 battle stars and New Orleans, San Francisco and Minneapolis served in the Pacific through V-J Day. They are among the top six most decorated ships of World War II, each with seventeen battle stars.

 

USS New Orleans was decommissioned on February 10, 1947 and mothballed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard until she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on March 1, 1959. New Orleans was sold for scrapping that September when she was dismantled at Baltimore, Maryland. There are probably few, if any, plank owners of the USS New Orleans (CA-32) left as this is being written in tribute to the 80th anniversary of the “NO Boat” commissioning at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. But if any descendants or caretakers of these mens' legacies find this post, they are welcomed and encouraged to share the story of their sailor or marine and post any photos or other memorabilia of this great ship or her men for others to honor.

The Kay Kyser Orchestra’s World War II recording of “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition”

 

 

 

USS New Orleans (CA-32) in English waters in June 1934 during her shakedown cruise to Britain, Denmark, Holland and Sweden. USS New Orleans (CA-32) after the Battle of Tassafaronga, November 1942.

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Officers’ roster of USS New Orleans (CA-32) on April 1, 1934. Unfortunately the muster roll of the NO Boat’s commissioning crew and crewmen serving prior to WW2 is not readily accessible as of this writing.

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Two views of the USS New Orleans' commissioning on February 15, 1934 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Visible in the right background of the bottom photo is the 3rd Naval District Receiving Ship, the old armored cruiser USS Seattle (ex- USS Washington).

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great stuff! thanks for putting all that info together and sharing with us. USN WW2 cruisers are an underappreciated subject IMHO so thanks for telling the story of the New Orleans. :)

Terry

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  • 3 years later...

BTT for Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Valentines Day, and the 84th Anniversary of the NO Boat, aka the Big Easy's commissioning. A few scrapbook photos: transiting the Panama Canal in July 1934 to rendez-vous at Balboa (western terminus) with USS Houston (CA 30) carrying FDR on his 12,000 nm cruise to Hawaii, looking forward (floatplane catapults on either side) (sister ship USS San Francisco (CA 38) was originally to be the escort ship for Houston, until she damaged a prop just before the cruise); skylarking by the hanger door; civilian crowds visiting the ship during the shakedown cruise to Europe, May- June 1934.

 

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