USS ASTORIA CA-34
             The Official Home of 'Nasty Asty'  

Construction, Commissioning, and Shakedown 1930-1934



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Prominent citizens of Astoria, Oregon pose with the first section of keel for the cruiser USS ASTORIA in a photo taken at Puget Sound Navy Yard on 1 September 1930. The cruiser USS LOUISVILLE CA-28 was launched earlier in the day, freeing a drydock berth to begin construction on ASTORIA.
-photo from Brent Jones collection





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Above and below: Lower hull plating is attached to the keel in the early phase of ASTORIA's construction at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, WA in late 1930. Since her keel was the first laid down, ASTORIA was considered the lead ship of her class.
-U.S. Navy photo in NARA record group 80-G-1027071



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U.S. Navy photo in Brent Jones collection




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Puget Sound Navy Yard in the early 1930s. Three battleships are visible in this image.
-photo courtesy of Steve Schutt





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Like all Bremerton ships, USS ASTORIA was constructed in a drydock, not builder's ways. In this 1933 photo the drydock is being flooded in preparation for her launch and christening.
U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection




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On 16 December 1933, USS ASTORIA is christened and launched before a gathered crowd at Puget Sound Navy Yard. Eleven days earlier, Prohibition was repealed in the United States, and ASTORIA became the first U.S. Navy ship to be christened with a champagne bottle in the post-Prohibition era.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection





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A dockside view from ASTORIA's launching, 16 December 1933.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection





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Tugs guide ASTORIA away from her building drydock, 16 December 1933.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection





A canceled postal envelope commemorating the commissioning of USS ASTORIA on 28 April 1934.  This individual envelope was addressed to the Commander-in-Chief of the Asiatic Fleet.
-from Brent Jones collection




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The completed USS ASTORIA CA-34 at Puget Sound Navy Yard on the morning of her commissioning ceremony, 28 April 1934.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection




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Above and below: ASTORIA's plankowner crew is assembled and awaiting the arrival of Rear Admiral E.H. Campbell and Captain Edmund S. Root for commissioning, 0930 28 April 1934.
Note the absence of teakwood decking, a measure employed to keep the cruiser under treaty weight for her commissioning
.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection





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Sailors and Marines at attention as Rear Admiral Campbell and Captain Root arrive for commissioning.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection




Captain A.T. Church, Industrial Department Manager, speaks in advance of Campbell and Root.
-photo reproduced from Jones ed., USS ASTORIA (CA-34) and the Men Who Sailed Her




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Rear Admiral Campbell has completed his speech and the ship's first Commanding Officer, Captain Edmund S. Root, steps up to address the plankowner crew of ASTORIA.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection




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Above and below: The first watch is set aboard USS ASTORIA CA-34.  The caption on the back of the photo carries special significance given her demise at Guadalcanal eight years later.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection





The commissioning plaque aboard USS ASTORIA CA-34.
-photo from Brent Jones collection





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USS ASTORIA in Puget Sound, Washington during her first post-builder's trial run, 29 May 1934.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection




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A second image of trials off Bremerton from late May 1934.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection




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The "plankowners" of USS ASTORIA, her commissioning crew in a photo taken 2 June 1934.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection




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USS ASTORIA against the Seattle skyline during trials, 9 June 1934.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection




USS ASTORIA departed Bremerton on her shakedown cruise to Australia on 2 July, 1934.  She is shown here coming into her first port of call, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, 9 July 1934. Note the Vought O3U-3 seaplanes atop her catapults.
-Tai Sing Loo photo from Naval History and Heritage Command collection NH 91726




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USS ASTORIA at Honolulu in July 1934. This is the only known pre-war photo of ASTORIA with blast bags affixed to her main battery.
-photo from Brent Jones collection




USS ASTORIA moored at Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii in July 1934.
-photo reproduced from Jones ed., USS ASTORIA (CA-34) and the Men Who Sailed Her




ASTORIA departed Hawaii on 16 July and headed south through the Line Islands. She crossed the equator on 24 July 1934, where time-honored Navy tradition dictated that King Neptune make his first visit to the ship "to initiate into his kingdom a brand new cargo of polywogs on a brand new ship."
-manipulation of Google Earth imagery




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The Neptunus Rex certificate signifying the equator crossing of USS ASTORIA plankowner and newly-initiated "trusty shellback" Shelby Oliver on 24 July 1934.
-courtesy of Kathleen A. Oliver




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The second half of ASTORIA's maiden voyage took her through the Samoan and Fiji Islands, where she crossed the International Date Line.  After a short liberty period at Suva, Fiji she headed on toward her final destination: Sydney, Australia.
-manipulation of Google Earth imagery




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Above: Sailors muster aboard USS ASTORIA in Sydney Harbor circa 15 August 1934. She spent ten days in New South Wales enjoying Aussie hospitality "down under."
Below: Another view of the ship taken at a different time during this port call, as several details differ.
-photos from Brent Jones collection





A senior officer of the Royal Australian Navy comes aboard ASTORIA during the Sydney port call.
-photo from Brent Jones collection




USS ASTORIA at Sydney, New South Wales on 17 August 1934.
-photo from Brent Jones collection




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The USS ASTORIA baseball team at Petersham Oval, New South Wales on 18 August 1934. Normally a cricket venue, the oval was the site of a baseball game between the ASTORIA team and the New South Wales team which won 4-3.
-photo from Brent Jones collection




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The New South Wales team that hosted the ASTORIA team on 18 August 1934 at Petersham Oval.
-photo from Brent Jones collection





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USS ASTORIA CA-34 on 26 September 1934, the day she arrived at Bremerton upon completion of her shakedown cruise.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection




Sources
Custer, Joe James. Through the Perilous Night: The Astoria's Last Battle. New York, NY: The MacMillan Company, 1944.

Google Earth. earth.google.com/download-earth.html.

Jones, Brent. Private photo and document collection.

Jones, Pat (ed.) The USS ASTORIA (CA-34) and the Men Who Sailed Her. USS ASTORIA Reunion Association. Privately printed, 1992.

Naval History and Heritage Command Photographic Section. http://www.history.navy.mil/

Oliver, Kathleen A. Private document collection.

Schutt, Steve. Private photo collection.


Continue to Fleet Problem XVI 1935


                                         
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