USS Houston (CA-30)

History

USS Houston (CL/CA-30), was a Northampton-class cruiser of the United States Navy. She was the second Navy ship to bear the name "Houston".

She was launched by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia, on 7 September 1929, sponsored by Elizabeth Holcombe (daughter of Oscar Holcombe, ex-mayor of Houston, Texas). Elizabeth was chaperoned by Mary Ellen Bute and Charlotte Williams (great grand-daughter of Sam Houston). Houston was commissioned on 17 June 1930.

The ship was originally classified as a light cruiser (hull number CL-30). Houston was redesignated a heavy cruiser (CA-30) on 1 July 1931, as the provisions of the 1930 London Naval Treaty classified ships with 8-inch (20.3 cm) main battery guns as heavy cruisers.

Text from Wikipedia: USS Houston (CA-30), CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

1. 1931
   Steaming to New York, the cruiser departed on 10 January 1931 for the Pacific, and after transiting the Panama Canal and the Hawaiian Islands, arrived at Manila on 22 February.
2. 1933
   She landed Marine and Navy gun platoons to help stabilize the situation and remained in the area, with the exception of a good will cruise to the Philippines in March and one to Japan in May 1933, until being relieved by Augusta on 17 November 1933.
3. 1934
   President Franklin Roosevelt came aboard on 1 July 1934 at Annapolis, Maryland, for a cruise of almost 12,000 nautical miles (14,000 mi; 22,000 km) through the Caribbean and to Portland, Oregon, by way of Hawaii.
4. 1937
   Houston celebrated the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge at San Francisco on 28 May 1937, and carried President Roosevelt for a Fleet Review at the same city on 14 July 1938.
5. 1939
   Continuing the routine of training exercises, she got underway for Fleet Problem XX, on 4 January 1939 from San Francisco, sailed to Norfolk and Key West, and there embarked the President and the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral William D. Leahy, for the duration of the exercise.
6. 1939
   Assigned as flagship of the Hawaiian Detachment, the cruiser arrived in Pearl Harbor after her post-overhaul shakedown on 7 December 1939, and continued in that capacity until returning to Mare Island on 17 February 1940.
7. 1941
   At 0900 hrs on 1 December 1941 Houston departed Cavite Navy Yard's Machina Wharf for the degaussing range in Manila Bay.
8. 1942
   Sailing on 26 February 1942 with the cruisers Houston, HMAS Perth, HNLMS De Ruyter, HMS Exeter, HNLMS Java and ten destroyers, he met the Japanese support force under Admiral Takeo Takagi consisting of four cruisers and 13 destroyers in the late afternoon of 27 February 1942.
9. 1942
   Before then, on 30 May 1942, 1,000 new recruits for the Navy, known as the Houston Volunteers, were sworn in at a dedication ceremony in downtown Houston, to replace those believed lost on Houston.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone aboard this ship

A ship history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Navy muster rolls, 1939–1949 (National Archives guide)
• Deck logs: how to get them (Naval History and Heritage Command)
• Crew lists research guide (NHHC)
• Search the National Archives Catalog for “USS Houston (CA-30)”

More history

• Naval History and Heritage Command (DANFS)
• Wikipedia: USS Houston (CA-30)