Daily Event for October 9, 2011

October 9, 1923 at the shipyard of William Cramp the Omaha class cruiser Marblehead CL-12 was launched. She was christened by Mrs. Hannah M. Evans, mother of Lt. Charles Evans, the first soldier from Marblehead, Massachusetts to fall in the Great War.

Marblehead was at Manila in late Nov. 1941, but the winds of war were on the horizon and she was sent to Borneo. On Dec. 8 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Marblehead joined with ships of the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Netherlands Navy and patrolled the waters of the Netherlands East Indies. She was in the Battle of Makassar Strait where she received at least two bomb hits and several near misses.

She was repaired at New York and then sent to the South Atlantic to operate against U-boats. From there she served as a convoy escort in the North Atlantic then to the Mediterranean where she took part in the invasion of southern France. Marblehead operated in the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean during World War II earning two battle stars. She was scrapped in 1946.
© 2011 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com


USS Marblehead CL-12, date and location unknown.





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