Name Portsmouth Commissioned 25 June 1945 Struck 15 January 1971 Launched 20 September 1944 | Laid down 28 June 1943 Decommissioned 15 June 1949 Construction started 28 June 1943 Builder Newport News Shipbuilding | |
Namesake City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire | ||
USS Portsmouth (CL–102) was a Cleveland-class light cruiser of the United States Navy, the third ship to carry the name.
Portsmouth was laid down by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia, on 28 June 1943; launched on 20 September 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Marian M. Dale and Mrs. Sarah B. Leigh, and commissioned 25 June 1945, Captain Heber B. Brumbaugh in command.
Service history
Following shakedown off Cuba, Portsmouth, based at Norfolk, was employed with the Operational Development Force until the spring of 1946. In May she departed on a goodwill cruise to Africa and after visiting Cape Town, Lagos, Freetown, Monrovia, Dakar, and Casablanca, steamed into the Mediterranean for calls at Naples, and Palermo before heading home.
On 25 November, Portsmouth got underway to return to the Mediterranean. Arriving at Naples on 7 December, she shifted around the peninsula to Trieste at the end of the month, and until February 1947 cruised in the politically turbulent Adriatic. The following month, she returned for another two weeks at Trieste and in April she sailed for the United States. The following November, she again steamed east to the Mediterranean, returning to the east coast for overhaul at Boston on 11 March 1948. On completion of overhaul, she resumed type exercises off the eastern seaboard and conducted Naval Reserve training cruises to the Caribbean. On 9 March 1949, she entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for inactivation overhaul.
Decommissioned on 15 June 1949, she joined the Atlantic Reserve Fleet and into 1970 remained a unit of that fleet, berthed at Philadelphia. Two of her main engines remain in service today as part of the MARF (Modifications and Additions to a Reactor Facility) facility for the S7G nuclear reactor prototype in Ballston Spa, New York.