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| Career | |
|---|---|
| Laid down: | ?? |
| Launched: | 3 November 1945 |
| Fate: | sold for scrap 1959 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 27,500 tons |
| Length: | 806.5 ft |
| Beam: | 91.1 ft |
| Draft: | 27.1 ft |
| Speed: | 31.4 knots |
| Armament: | 9 x 12-inch guns |
| Armor: | 9-inch belt, 12.8-inch turret |
The first USS Hawaii (CB-3) was to be an Alaska-class large cruiser (similar to a battlecruiser), but never served as a commissioned ship before being scrapped.
She was launched 3 November 1945 by New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, New Jersey, sponsored by Mrs. Joseph R. Farrington, wife of the delegate from the Territory of Hawaii. One of the projected class of six ships, of which only two were completed, Hawaii and her sisters were designed to cope with the large German pocket battleships and Japanese armored cruisers. Due to the reduction in defense expenditures after World War II, her construction was suspended. In September 1947 she stood 84 percent complete. For a time it was planned that Hawaii should be converted to the Navy's first guided missile ship, but she remained in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Her classification was changed to large command ship, CBC-1, 26 February 1952 when conversion was again contemplated; but she reverted to her original classification 9 October 1954 and was sold for scrap to Boston Metals Company, Baltimore, Maryland, in 1959 after being struck from the Naval Vessel Register 9 June 1958.
External Links
This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.