1922 USS DETROIT. One of the ten-strong Omaha class of scouting cruisers, begun in the last year of the First World War to make good a deficit in the
US Navy amongst ships of this type.
THE OMAHA CLASS
In 1916 the US Congress passed a huge Navy Bill, one product of which was the Omaha class of scouting cruisers. Detroit was the fifth ship of the class. Constructed by Fore River Shipbuilders, her keel was laid on 10 November 1920, she was launched on 29 June 1922 and commissioned on 31 July 1923. These ships were really scaled-up destroyers, with large, powerful engines to allow them to keep up with the fastest ships in the fleet. All survived the Second World War, Detroit being sold for scrap in 1946.
OLD-FASHIONED GUN PLAN
Eight of the Detroits 6in (152mm) guns were mounted singly in fixed two storey casemates and had only limited fields of fire. A pair of trainable 6in (l52mm) guns mounted behind blast-proof shields was later added both fore and aft. They were also armed with a single 3in (76mm) anti-aircraft gun fore and aft, and ten 21in (533mm) torpedo tubes, four on the main deck and six more lust forward of the break of the forecastle (which was well aft; the reduction of freeboard to main deck level on the fantail was intended to allow the ships to lay mines). Their main asset as a scout were the aircraft they flew off the twin catapults mounted amidships.
TECHNICAL DATA
Type: Light (scouting) cruiser
Machinery: 4-shaft Westinghouse turbines delivering 90,000shp
Dimensions: Length, 169.4m (555.51t), beam, 16.9m (55.5ft)
Displacement: 7050t standard; 9510t deep load
Draft: 4.lm (13.5ft)
Complement: 458
Speed: 34 knots (63km/h)
