November 2003 Cover |
by Steve Shay |
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USS NORTHAMPTON |
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The USS Northampton, CL-26, was commissioned May 17, 1930. The first of her class, Northampton was armed with 9 8" guns as well as 4 5" guns. When World War II broke out, Northampton was at sea with the USS Enterprise group that entered Pearl Harbor the day after the attack. Northampton was still with the Enterprise escort group that sailed with the USS Hornet group in April 1942 that launched the Doolittle Raiders. She was still with the Enterprise force at the Battle of Midway and later participated in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. Northampton would next see action during the Guadalcanal campaign. On the night of November 30, 1942, a U.S. force composed of Northampton, four other cruisers and six destroyers were sent to intercept a group of eight Japanese destroyers headed to bring reinforcements and supplies to the troops on Guadalcanal. The U.S. ships made contact and opened fire. Seven minutes later the Japanese returned the fire. Within ten minutes three U.S. cruisers had taken torpedo hits. Twenty five minutes later, the Northampton took two torpedo hits and began immediately listing to port. The call to abandon ship was made and the crew took to the water. Three hours later the Northampton sank. Close to 1,000 of the crew were rescued but 59 of the crew were lost. One of the crew that was rescued was nineteen year old radioman Jason Robards who went on to be a Hollywood actor. The letter was mailed on November 24, cancelled with the ship's Type 3z cancel, 6 days before the ship would go down. |
