MIGHTY NINETY
The Homepage of USS ASTORIA CL-90
Beginnings
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
The inboard profile of USS CLEVELAND CL-55, first ship of the class, as drawn in June 1940.
-reproduced from Friedman, U.S. Cruisers.
11 September 1940
With American involvement in the Second World War becoming more and more imminent, the U.S. Navy placed an order for six additional CLEVELAND-class cruisers to be added to their Fiscal Year 1941 building program. Construction of these six cruisers, pennant numbers CL-89 through CL-94, was awarded to William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company, of Philadelphia, PA.
The six Cramp CLEVELANDs kept with the tradition of naming cruisers after U.S. cities and were to be named:
The first philatelic envelope associated with CL-90 commemorates her keel laying under her original name, USS WILKES-BARRE.
-Brent Jones collection
7 December 1941
Hull #533 was three months into its construction when the nation learned that U.S. military installations had been attacked by Imperial Japan in the territory of Hawaii, most notably at Pearl Harbor on Oahu. In the days that followed, Japanese attacks were expanded to American, British, Dutch, and Australian interests across the Pacific. America became a nation at war.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
In one of countless photos taken at U.S. military installations on Oahu on 7 December, the harbor tug USS HOGA YT-146 fights fires across the forecastle of USS NEVADA BB-36 as she lies beached off Hospital Point in Pearl Harbor. During the Japanese attacks on Battleship Row, NEVADA had gallantly gotten underway and steamed toward the harbor entrance before she was run aground in an effort to save the ship. The effort paid off, and NEVADA was back in action within 18 months.
-U.S. Navy photo from NARA collection
7 August 1942
Eight months after declaring war, the United States was on the offensive against Japan. First light brought the kickoff of a pivotal invasion of the strategic Solomon Islands of Guadalcanal, Florida, and Tulagi. U.S. heavy cruisers took the lead in preparatory shore bombardment, filling a void created by the absence of battleships badly damaged at Pearl Harbor. Among these ships were three sister NEW ORLEANS-class heavy cruisers: USS VINCENNES CA-44, USS QUINCY CA-39, and USS ASTORIA CA-34.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
USS VINCENNES CA-44 fires a salvo during preparatory bombardment off Guadalcanal in the early morning of 7 August, 1942. This is the last known photo taken of VINCENNES.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection
8-9 August 1942
In night action off Guadalcanal near Savo Island, the U.S. Cruisers VINCENNES, QUINCY, and ASTORIA were all sunk by a Japanese task group along with the Australian cruiser HMAS CANBERRA. ASTORIA CA-34, "Nasty Asty" to her crew, was hit at least 65 times by enemy shells. In spite of this, her surviving crew worked through the night and morning to save the ship. Finally, shortly after noon the next day, she gave in to overwhelming fires and slipped beneath the surface. ASTORIA was the last ship damaged in the battle to sink.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
The last known photo of USS ASTORIA CA-34, circa 7 August 1942. Two days later she would be in the depths of what came to be known as "Iron Bottom Sound."
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection
USS ASTORIA had been a proud ship. She had served with distinction throughout her career and during the early days of World War II. She performed screen duty for American carriers during the famous actions at the Coral Sea and Midway, and she finally went down fighting at Guadalcanal. It was only fitting that the Navy would christen a new cruiser with the name USS ASTORIA, along with other cruisers lost early in the war. These "vengeance ships" began to slide down the ways in an American navy that would come to dwarf its pre-war predecessor in scale.
At Cramp Shipyard in Philadelphia, the hull of CL-90 was renamed from WILKES-BARRE to ASTORIA to commemorate the sacrifices of Nasty Asty and her crew.
August-December 1942
Work continued on the two CLEVELAND-class cruisers at Cramp, CL-89 MIAMI and CL-90 ASTORIA. Although Cramp was also busy building destroyers and submarines, the shipyard's capacity for cruisers was only two at a time; the keel-laying on CL-91 OKLAHOMA CITY had to wait until CL-89 was launched. On 8 December, almost exactly one year to the day after the Japanese attacks on Oahu, USS MIAMI became the first CLEVELAND launched by Cramp. ASTORIA's turn would come next.
USS MIAMI CL-89 is launched at Cramp Shipyard, 8 December 1942. USS ASTORIA is being built at right.
-photo courtesy of Sal Indelicato and Ron Schmitt
Cramp pneumatics workers Henry Gervasi and John Scott drill on the second deck of USS GALVESTON in a photo from a late-war Cramp shipbuilding publication.
-photo courtesy of Sal Indelicato and Ron Schmitt
Cramp driller Ernest Bell and chipper George Darden attach a line to a spider manifold.
-photo courtesy of Sal Indelicato and Ron Schmitt
6 March 1943
After 18 months of construction, the completed hull of USS ASTORIA CL-90 was launched into the Delaware River. She was sponsored by Mrs. Robert Lucas, wife of the editor of the Astorian-Budget newspaper. Once in the water, the focus of ASTORIA's construction shifted to her superstructure.
USS ASTORIA CL-90 is launched into the Delaware at Cramp Shipyard, 6 March 1943. USS OKLAHOMA CITY CL-91 is under construction at left. This is the earliest photo of Mighty Ninety known to this website.
-photo courtesy of Sal Indelicato and Ron Schmitt
Other ships were being built in unprecedented numbers, including CLEVELAND-class cruisers. Across the river from ASTORIA at New York Ship, CL-103 was launched with the reassigned name of WILKES-BARRE. Up at the Bethlehem Fore River Yard in Quincy, MA, PASADENA CL-65 and SPRINGFIELD CL-66 were also nearing completion. These four CLEVELANDs would serve together as Cruiser Division 17 throughout 1945.
The launchings of future Cruiser Division 17 ships are commemorated on these philatelic envelopes.
-Brent Jones collection
During this period America was also mobilizing her young men in unprecedented numbers. ASTORIA CL-90's crew-to-be came from all corners of the United States. Some men came from the existing Navy, including at least four sailors who had served aboard "Nasty Asty," ASTORIA CA-34. Many others were "learning the ropes" at naval training stations and schools across the nation.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Recruit Company 560 photo from NTS Sampson. Holding the "War Bond Champs" banner at far right is future Mighty Ninety plankowner Arthur "Tommy" Whitesell, 4th Division.
-photo courtesy of Teresa Whitesell
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Company 14, Section 1 photo from Radio Materiel School, Treasure Island, CA in 1943. Future ASTORIA K Division plankowner Clarence "Clancy" Allen is in the second row standing, fourth from left.
-photo courtesy of Clancy Allen
Aerial view of Cramp shipyard, circa 1944-45. The two sets of cruiser ways are visible at right center, and further to the right in the water is a CLEVELAND-class cruiser, either ASTORIA CL-90 or LITTLE ROCK CL-92, nearing completion (marked by arrow).
-photo reproduced from www.destroyerhistory.org
This 20 Feb 1944 launching photo of USS OKLAHOMA CITY CL-91 gives a clear view of the lack of superstructure at time of launching. ASTORIA CL-90 was nearing completion of her superstructure at the time of this photo.
-photo courtesy of Sal Indelicato and Ron Schmitt
15-17 May 1944
From the Mighty Ninety cruise book:
It all started back in
Two days after the majority of Mighty Ninety's crew reported for duty, the CL-90 commissioning ceremony took place at Philadelphia Navy Yard. The Navy Commandant present was Rear Admiral M.F. Draemel, 4th Naval District. The first watch was set and USS ASTORIA became a ship of the United States Navy, under command of Captain George C. Dyer and executive officer Commander E.W. Armentrout, Jr.
USS ASTORIA CL-90 commissioning ceremony and menu programs, both from 17 May 1944. The drawing accurately portrays the differences in design and outfitting between CL-90 and other CLEVELANDs, but portrays a camouflage measure that she would not wear until two years later, after the war was over.
-documents courtesy of Robert A. Migliorisi
The CL-90 commissioning ceremony events as detailed in the commissioning program.
-document courtesy of Robert A. Migliorisi
The men who had reported aboard ASTORIA on or before 17 May 1944 were considered "Plankowners," a long-standing U.S. Navy tradition recognizing the original crew of a ship. Following the commissioning ceremony, these men were issued Plankowner's Certificates, which read:
To all ye Salts and Tars, all ye Skates, Suckers, Dolphins, Whales, and all other creatures of the surface and the deep, be it known hereby, that shipmate __________ having been one of the original crew of the good ship ASTORIA is declared a Plankowner, in good standing, and is entitled to any and all privileges due one of his status. In addition, he is given sole ownership of one plank, from the main deck of aforementioned vessel. Signed and sealed, this, the seventeenth of May, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand, Nine Hundred, Forty-Four.
The certificate was signed by Commander Armentrout and Captain Dyer.
The Plankowner's Certificate of Herb Blodgett, M Division.
-courtesy of Herb Blodgett
6 June 1944
From the Mighty Ninety cruise book:
After the final fitting out at the Navy Yard,
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
USS ASTORIA CL-90 underway at the beginning of her shakedown cruise, 8 June 1944. Her first wartime livery is the light-pattern disruptive measure 33, pattern 24d.
-U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Larry Cote.
On the same day that Mighty Ninety set out into the Atlantic Ocean for her shakedown, the eyes of the world were beginning to focus on the French coastal region of Normandy. Overnight, the Allied Expeditionary Force had launched a combined airborne and seaborne invasion of German-occupied France, which would come to be universally known as D-Day.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
American soldiers exit an LCVP "Higgins boat" and wade ashore at OMAHA beach, 6 June 1944.
-CPhoM Robert F. Sargent photo from NARA collection
One week later an operation even larger than D-Day got underway on the opposite side of the globe, illustrating just how far American force projection had come in less than three years. OPERATION FORAGER kicked off with the invasion of Saipan, 15 June 1944. The combined Marianas landings paved the way for the operations Mighty Ninety would play a role in throughout the year that followed. But for the time being, CL-90 was headed to another part of the world altogether.
LVTs head ashore at Saipan as INDIANAPOLIS CA-35 provides shore bombardment, 15 June 1944. This photo was taken from BIRMINGHAM CL-62. Four months later ASTORIA would cross paths with both of these ships as they underwent repairs in California and Hawaii, giving her crew a first-hand look at the effects of the Pacific War they were sailing toward .
-U.S. Navy Photo reproduced from www.navsource.org.
NEXT: SHAKEDOWN CRUISE
CLICK PHOTOS TO ADVANCE TO NEXT PAGE
BACK TO SHIP HISTORY
Sources:
Allen, Clancy. Private photo collection.
Blodgett, Herb. Private document collection.
Cote, Larry. Private photo collection.
Friedman,
Jones, Brent. Private document collection.
Migliorisi, Robert A. Private document collection.
Unk. editor. MIGHTY NINETY: USS ASTORIA CL-90 cruise book. Unk. publisher, 1946.
Schmitt, Ron and Indelicato, Sal. Private photo collections.
Whitesell, Teresa. Private photo collection.
www.archives.gov National Archives and Records Administration WWII photo archive.
www.destroyerhistory.org Cramp Shipbuilding photo archive.
www.navsource.org cruiser photo archive.
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
The inboard profile of USS CLEVELAND CL-55, first ship of the class, as drawn in June 1940.
-reproduced from Friedman, U.S. Cruisers.
11 September 1940
With American involvement in the Second World War becoming more and more imminent, the U.S. Navy placed an order for six additional CLEVELAND-class cruisers to be added to their Fiscal Year 1941 building program. Construction of these six cruisers, pennant numbers CL-89 through CL-94, was awarded to William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company, of Philadelphia, PA.
The six Cramp CLEVELANDs kept with the tradition of naming cruisers after U.S. cities and were to be named:
- CL-89 USS MIAMI
- CL-90 USS WILKES-BARRE
- CL-91 USS OKLAHOMA CITY
- CL-92 USS LITTLE ROCK
- CL-93 USS GALVESTON
- CL-94 USS YOUNGSTOWN
The first philatelic envelope associated with CL-90 commemorates her keel laying under her original name, USS WILKES-BARRE.
-Brent Jones collection
6 September 1941
The keel of hull #533 was laid at William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company, Philadelphia, PA and assigned to CL-90 WILKES-BARRE. In the months that followed, this hull began to take on the sleek lines of a cruiser.
7 December 1941
Hull #533 was three months into its construction when the nation learned that U.S. military installations had been attacked by Imperial Japan in the territory of Hawaii, most notably at Pearl Harbor on Oahu. In the days that followed, Japanese attacks were expanded to American, British, Dutch, and Australian interests across the Pacific. America became a nation at war.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
In one of countless photos taken at U.S. military installations on Oahu on 7 December, the harbor tug USS HOGA YT-146 fights fires across the forecastle of USS NEVADA BB-36 as she lies beached off Hospital Point in Pearl Harbor. During the Japanese attacks on Battleship Row, NEVADA had gallantly gotten underway and steamed toward the harbor entrance before she was run aground in an effort to save the ship. The effort paid off, and NEVADA was back in action within 18 months.
-U.S. Navy photo from NARA collection
7 August 1942
Eight months after declaring war, the United States was on the offensive against Japan. First light brought the kickoff of a pivotal invasion of the strategic Solomon Islands of Guadalcanal, Florida, and Tulagi. U.S. heavy cruisers took the lead in preparatory shore bombardment, filling a void created by the absence of battleships badly damaged at Pearl Harbor. Among these ships were three sister NEW ORLEANS-class heavy cruisers: USS VINCENNES CA-44, USS QUINCY CA-39, and USS ASTORIA CA-34.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
USS VINCENNES CA-44 fires a salvo during preparatory bombardment off Guadalcanal in the early morning of 7 August, 1942. This is the last known photo taken of VINCENNES.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection
8-9 August 1942
In night action off Guadalcanal near Savo Island, the U.S. Cruisers VINCENNES, QUINCY, and ASTORIA were all sunk by a Japanese task group along with the Australian cruiser HMAS CANBERRA. ASTORIA CA-34, "Nasty Asty" to her crew, was hit at least 65 times by enemy shells. In spite of this, her surviving crew worked through the night and morning to save the ship. Finally, shortly after noon the next day, she gave in to overwhelming fires and slipped beneath the surface. ASTORIA was the last ship damaged in the battle to sink.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
The last known photo of USS ASTORIA CA-34, circa 7 August 1942. Two days later she would be in the depths of what came to be known as "Iron Bottom Sound."
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection
USS ASTORIA had been a proud ship. She had served with distinction throughout her career and during the early days of World War II. She performed screen duty for American carriers during the famous actions at the Coral Sea and Midway, and she finally went down fighting at Guadalcanal. It was only fitting that the Navy would christen a new cruiser with the name USS ASTORIA, along with other cruisers lost early in the war. These "vengeance ships" began to slide down the ways in an American navy that would come to dwarf its pre-war predecessor in scale.
At Cramp Shipyard in Philadelphia, the hull of CL-90 was renamed from WILKES-BARRE to ASTORIA to commemorate the sacrifices of Nasty Asty and her crew.
August-December 1942
Work continued on the two CLEVELAND-class cruisers at Cramp, CL-89 MIAMI and CL-90 ASTORIA. Although Cramp was also busy building destroyers and submarines, the shipyard's capacity for cruisers was only two at a time; the keel-laying on CL-91 OKLAHOMA CITY had to wait until CL-89 was launched. On 8 December, almost exactly one year to the day after the Japanese attacks on Oahu, USS MIAMI became the first CLEVELAND launched by Cramp. ASTORIA's turn would come next.
USS MIAMI CL-89 is launched at Cramp Shipyard, 8 December 1942. USS ASTORIA is being built at right.
-photo courtesy of Sal Indelicato and Ron Schmitt
Cramp pneumatics workers Henry Gervasi and John Scott drill on the second deck of USS GALVESTON in a photo from a late-war Cramp shipbuilding publication.
-photo courtesy of Sal Indelicato and Ron Schmitt
Cramp driller Ernest Bell and chipper George Darden attach a line to a spider manifold.
-photo courtesy of Sal Indelicato and Ron Schmitt
6 March 1943
After 18 months of construction, the completed hull of USS ASTORIA CL-90 was launched into the Delaware River. She was sponsored by Mrs. Robert Lucas, wife of the editor of the Astorian-Budget newspaper. Once in the water, the focus of ASTORIA's construction shifted to her superstructure.
USS ASTORIA CL-90 is launched into the Delaware at Cramp Shipyard, 6 March 1943. USS OKLAHOMA CITY CL-91 is under construction at left. This is the earliest photo of Mighty Ninety known to this website.
-photo courtesy of Sal Indelicato and Ron Schmitt
Other ships were being built in unprecedented numbers, including CLEVELAND-class cruisers. Across the river from ASTORIA at New York Ship, CL-103 was launched with the reassigned name of WILKES-BARRE. Up at the Bethlehem Fore River Yard in Quincy, MA, PASADENA CL-65 and SPRINGFIELD CL-66 were also nearing completion. These four CLEVELANDs would serve together as Cruiser Division 17 throughout 1945.
The launchings of future Cruiser Division 17 ships are commemorated on these philatelic envelopes.
-Brent Jones collection
During this period America was also mobilizing her young men in unprecedented numbers. ASTORIA CL-90's crew-to-be came from all corners of the United States. Some men came from the existing Navy, including at least four sailors who had served aboard "Nasty Asty," ASTORIA CA-34. Many others were "learning the ropes" at naval training stations and schools across the nation.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Recruit Company 560 photo from NTS Sampson. Holding the "War Bond Champs" banner at far right is future Mighty Ninety plankowner Arthur "Tommy" Whitesell, 4th Division.
-photo courtesy of Teresa Whitesell
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Company 14, Section 1 photo from Radio Materiel School, Treasure Island, CA in 1943. Future ASTORIA K Division plankowner Clarence "Clancy" Allen is in the second row standing, fourth from left.
-photo courtesy of Clancy Allen
Aerial view of Cramp shipyard, circa 1944-45. The two sets of cruiser ways are visible at right center, and further to the right in the water is a CLEVELAND-class cruiser, either ASTORIA CL-90 or LITTLE ROCK CL-92, nearing completion (marked by arrow).
-photo reproduced from www.destroyerhistory.org
This 20 Feb 1944 launching photo of USS OKLAHOMA CITY CL-91 gives a clear view of the lack of superstructure at time of launching. ASTORIA CL-90 was nearing completion of her superstructure at the time of this photo.
-photo courtesy of Sal Indelicato and Ron Schmitt
15-17 May 1944
From the Mighty Ninety cruise book:
It all started back in
Two days after the majority of Mighty Ninety's crew reported for duty, the CL-90 commissioning ceremony took place at Philadelphia Navy Yard. The Navy Commandant present was Rear Admiral M.F. Draemel, 4th Naval District. The first watch was set and USS ASTORIA became a ship of the United States Navy, under command of Captain George C. Dyer and executive officer Commander E.W. Armentrout, Jr.
USS ASTORIA CL-90 commissioning ceremony and menu programs, both from 17 May 1944. The drawing accurately portrays the differences in design and outfitting between CL-90 and other CLEVELANDs, but portrays a camouflage measure that she would not wear until two years later, after the war was over.
-documents courtesy of Robert A. Migliorisi
The CL-90 commissioning ceremony events as detailed in the commissioning program.
-document courtesy of Robert A. Migliorisi
The men who had reported aboard ASTORIA on or before 17 May 1944 were considered "Plankowners," a long-standing U.S. Navy tradition recognizing the original crew of a ship. Following the commissioning ceremony, these men were issued Plankowner's Certificates, which read:
To all ye Salts and Tars, all ye Skates, Suckers, Dolphins, Whales, and all other creatures of the surface and the deep, be it known hereby, that shipmate __________ having been one of the original crew of the good ship ASTORIA is declared a Plankowner, in good standing, and is entitled to any and all privileges due one of his status. In addition, he is given sole ownership of one plank, from the main deck of aforementioned vessel. Signed and sealed, this, the seventeenth of May, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand, Nine Hundred, Forty-Four.
The certificate was signed by Commander Armentrout and Captain Dyer.
The Plankowner's Certificate of Herb Blodgett, M Division.
-courtesy of Herb Blodgett
6 June 1944
From the Mighty Ninety cruise book:
After the final fitting out at the Navy Yard,
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
USS ASTORIA CL-90 underway at the beginning of her shakedown cruise, 8 June 1944. Her first wartime livery is the light-pattern disruptive measure 33, pattern 24d.
-U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Larry Cote.
On the same day that Mighty Ninety set out into the Atlantic Ocean for her shakedown, the eyes of the world were beginning to focus on the French coastal region of Normandy. Overnight, the Allied Expeditionary Force had launched a combined airborne and seaborne invasion of German-occupied France, which would come to be universally known as D-Day.
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
American soldiers exit an LCVP "Higgins boat" and wade ashore at OMAHA beach, 6 June 1944.
-CPhoM Robert F. Sargent photo from NARA collection
One week later an operation even larger than D-Day got underway on the opposite side of the globe, illustrating just how far American force projection had come in less than three years. OPERATION FORAGER kicked off with the invasion of Saipan, 15 June 1944. The combined Marianas landings paved the way for the operations Mighty Ninety would play a role in throughout the year that followed. But for the time being, CL-90 was headed to another part of the world altogether.
LVTs head ashore at Saipan as INDIANAPOLIS CA-35 provides shore bombardment, 15 June 1944. This photo was taken from BIRMINGHAM CL-62. Four months later ASTORIA would cross paths with both of these ships as they underwent repairs in California and Hawaii, giving her crew a first-hand look at the effects of the Pacific War they were sailing toward .
-U.S. Navy Photo reproduced from www.navsource.org.
NEXT: SHAKEDOWN CRUISE
CLICK PHOTOS TO ADVANCE TO NEXT PAGE
BACK TO SHIP HISTORY
Sources:
Allen, Clancy. Private photo collection.
Blodgett, Herb. Private document collection.
Cote, Larry. Private photo collection.
Friedman,
Jones, Brent. Private document collection.
Migliorisi, Robert A. Private document collection.
Unk. editor. MIGHTY NINETY: USS ASTORIA CL-90 cruise book. Unk. publisher, 1946.
Schmitt, Ron and Indelicato, Sal. Private photo collections.
Whitesell, Teresa. Private photo collection.
www.archives.gov National Archives and Records Administration WWII photo archive.
www.destroyerhistory.org Cramp Shipbuilding photo archive.
www.navsource.org cruiser photo archive.
