Worcester class cruisers

[David Latuch]

Speechless

[nighthunter]

That's it, I'm leaving the WoWS Seattle-class to the experts, lol

[Charybdis]

Top quality as usual. Fabulous drawings.

[Novice]

Magnificent drawings, as usual with Colo's work on USN ships.

[heuhen]

Magnifiq

[Colosseum]

Thanks all.



This is ROANOKE (CL-145) in June of 1957, while the ship was at San Francisco for a fleet review conducted by Admiral Nimitz. She is camouflaged in the overall Haze Grey of Measure US 27, with black funnel tops and mainmast.

By the late 1950s both WORCESTER class cruisers had had their mainmasts reduced to mount the AN/SPS-8A height-finding radar. This massive antenna replaced the previous (and much smaller) SP-1, a wartime height-finding set. The DBM radar direction finders previously mounted at the maintop have been relocated to small yards abeam the foundation for the new telescoping maintopmast. AT-150 dipoles for various tactical radio and TACAN sets were mounted at the maintop. The foremast on ROANOKE was not rebuilt the same way as WORCESTER, which received the URN-3 TACAN radome at the masthead. CO2 lifeboats in bins have replaced the wartime floater nets in baskets, and "E" for excellence has been painted on various directors and guns (indicating higher than average crew performance). Glazing has been added at the 04 level forward, protecting the navigating bridge, and a small windshield has been built at the 05 level protecting the VJ radar repeater. This trend is indicative of the move away from the large open bridges favored during the war, when overhead visibility was considered paramount, towards greater crew comfort and electronic equipment protection from the elements.

Like WORCESTER, ROANOKE would serve throughout the 1950s, being decommissioned in 1958 and sold for scrap by 1972.

[emperor_andreas]

Awesome!

[erik_t]

All of this talk of telescoping topmasts is interesting. Was this a particular focus of the Worcesters (being very big for cruisers, perhaps they needed help fitting into traditionally cruiser berths, or something), or does this instead reflect your ever-deepening mania for research?

I know, whatever the answer, it's not as cool as a Forrestal!

[MihoshiK]

And once again Colo reminds us all who's king of the hill around here.

Damn son.

[Colosseum]

Thanks guys. One more (the last iteration):



This is WORCESTER in September of 1958, as the ship entered Mare Island Navy Yard for deactivation.

WORCESTER's final electronics fit was slightly more modern than her sister ROANOKE's at this point. The SG-6 surface search radar at the foretop has been replaced with the fiberglass dome of the AN/URN-3 TACAN system. The smaller radome of AN/URD-4 (also a TACAN antenna) sits at the masthead, with the original tactical radio antennas moved to U-shaped yards below the foretop. Main air search is still the AN/SPS-6B, and the mesh antenna of AN/SPS-4 has replaced the magnesyn compass on a small platform ahead of the foremast. The large SPS-8A antenna remains on the mainmast.

By this time, WORCESTER had received the AN/SLR-2 ECM suite standard to almost all USN warships of the time. An AS-570 antenna inside a radome has been installed atop the number one stack, and AS-616 / AS-571 antennas have been installed atop the number two stack. These were countermeasures receiving antennas intended for passive warning. The wartime TDY has been deleted from the foremast.

WORCESTER's bridge windows have been revamped along the same lines as ROANOKE, this time with a more modern style of glazing at the 03 level around the navigating bridge.

---

All of this talk of telescoping topmasts is interesting. Was this a particular focus of the Worcesters (being very big for cruisers, perhaps they needed help fitting into traditionally cruiser berths, or something), or does this instead reflect your ever-deepening mania for research?

My plans of Roanoke show "top of telescopic mast", and right below that a dashed line marked "126'-0" CLEARANCE LINE ABOVE MEAN HIGH WATER UNDER BROOKLYN BRIDGE AT 24'-0" DRAFT". Not as impressive as Forrestal's folding mast though!