75 Years ago today: Pith helmet-clad junior officer Pollywogs stand watch atop 6″/47 cal gun turret Number Two of the Fargo-class light cruiser USS Huntington (CL-107), during the Crossing the Line Equator ceremonies in East African waters, 30 September 1948.
Collection of Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, USN. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 93201
Note the array of radar antennas on the ship’s foremast and superstructure, including (from top): Zenith search radar; air search radar; Mk. 13 fire control radar atop an Mk. 34 main battery gun director; and Mk. 25 fire control radar atop an Mk. 37 gun director.
The Fargos were the last class built to carry the Mark 16 6″/47, using a slightly heavier and larger turret with more protection than the ones used for the earlier Brooklyn and St. Louis classes. Capable of firing a 130-pound shell to 26,118 yards, each gun could fire as many as 10 shells per minute, draining the ship’s magazine in just 20 minutes of sustained fire. However, as the Fargos could smother a target with 120 shells every 60 seconds, you didn’t need a lot of minutes.
Commissioned in 1946, Huntington was too late for WWII, was in the wrong fleet to lend her broadside to support UN troops in Korea, and, an all-gun cruiser in a missile era, was struck from the Navy List 1 September 1961 after being in reserve, and was subsequently scrapped.