| Beginnings |
| The Indianapolis was built in compliance with the 1921-22
Washington Treaty which limited both the number and displacement of military
ships. Of the Portland Class, Indianapolis was laid down 31 March
1930 by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, New Jersey; launched 7 November
1931; sponsored by Miss Lucy Taggart, daughter of the late Senator Taggart
and former mayor of Indianapolis; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy
Yard 15 November 1932, Captain John M. Smeallie in command. |
| Indianapolis was 610 feet 3 inches in length and 66 feet
1 inch at the beam. She drew a 17 foot 6 inch draft (24 feet when fully armed,
manned and provisioned) and had a designed speed of 32 knots. Her armament
consisted of nine 8" guns placed in three turrets (two fore and one aft);
four 5" guns; twenty-four 40mm intermediate range guns and thirty-two 20mm
Oerlikon guns which were installed during several overhauls and refits during
the war. |
| Indianapolis earned 10 battlestars for World War II
service. |
| On the 10th of January, 1932, she departed for Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, for her shakedown cruise. Indianapolis was occupied thus until
23 February 1923 when in company of the USS Babbitt, (DD-128), she
departed for the Panama Canal to conduct further training and called at Gonaives
Bay, Haiti en route. Transiting the canal, she exercised in the Pacific,
visited Tongoy Bay, Chile, finally returning to Panama on April 1.
Indianapolis returned to Philadelphia Navy Yard for post-shakedown
overhaul. |
