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USS ''Raleigh'' (CL-7) was an light cruiser, originally classified as a scout cruiser, of the United States Navy. She was the third Navy ship named for the city of Raleigh, North Carolina. She spent most of her pre-war career in the Atlantic. Her first duty was to assist in the USAAS's first aerial circumnavigation of the world. In 1936 ''Raleigh'' joined Squadron 40-T in neutrality patrols during the Spanish Civil War where she would serve until 1938 when she would be transferred to the Pacific. This would lead her to be fatefully moored at berth F-12 on the morning of 7 December 1941, where she would take a torpedo in her No.2 boiler room and claim five victories with her anti-aircraft batteries with no loss of life.〔 ==Built in Quincy, Massachusetts== ''Raleigh'' was ordered on 29 August 1916 and contracted to be built by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts, 21 August 1917. Her keel was laid on 15 May 1920 and launched on 23 May 1921,〔 the cruiser was christened by Miss Jennie Proctor; and commissioned 6 February 1924, Captain William C. Watts in command. ''Raleigh'' was long at the waterline with an overall length of , her beam was and a mean draft of . Her standard displacement was and at full load.〔 Her crew, during peace time, consisted of 29 officers and 429 enlisted men.〔 ''Raleigh'' was powered by four Curtis steam turbines geared steam turbines, each driving one screw, using steam generated by 12 Yarrow boilers. The engines were designed to produce and reach a top speed of .〔 She was designed to provided a range of at a speed of , but was only capable of at a speed of 〔 ''Raleigh''s main armament went through many changes while she was being designed. Originally she was to mount ten caliber guns; two on either side at the waist, with the remaining eight mounted in tiered casemates on either side of the fore and aft superstructures. After America's entry into World War I the US Navy worked alongside the Royal Navy and it was deceided to mount four 6-in/53 caliber guns in two twin gun turrets fore and aft and keep the eight guns in the tiered casemates so that she would have an eight gun broadside and, due to limited arcs of fire from the casemate guns, four to six guns firing fore or aft. Her secondary armament consisted of two caliber anti-aircraft guns in single mounts. ''Raleigh'' was initially built with the capacity to carry 224 mines, but these were removed early in her career to make way for more crew accommodations. She also carried two triple and two twin, above-water, torpedo tube mounts for torpedoes. The triple mounts were fitted on either side of the upper deck, aft of the aircraft catapults, and the twin mounts were one deck lower on either side, covered by hatches in the side of the hull.〔 The ship lacked a full-length waterline armor belt. The sides of her boiler and engine rooms and steering gear were protected by of armor. The transverse bulkheads at the end of her machinery rooms were thick forward and three inches thick aft. The deck over the machinery spaces and steering gear had a thickness of 1.5 inches. The gun turrets were not armored and only provided protection against muzzle blast and the conning tower had 1.5 inches of armor.〔 ''Raleigh'' carried two floatplanes aboard that were stored on the two catapults. Initially these were probably Vought VE-9s until the early 1930s when the ship may have operated OJ-2 until 1935 and Curtiss SOC Seagulls until 1940 when Vought OS2U Kingfishers where used on ships without hangers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Raleigh (CL-7)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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