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Balboa Harbor, Panama Canal Zone – Aerial photograph taken 23 April 1934, with the U.S. Fleet’s scouting force on hand for spring maneuvers. The image is remarkable as it is showing four cruisers (including the ill-fated brand-new Portland-class heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis), two fleet support ships, and a whopping 44 destroyers moored together. The combined force as shown would have required some 8,000 bluejackets and marines to man them.
It should be noted that all of the destroyers are classic WWI-era four-stacked, flush-decked ships constructed between 1917-20. Pushing obsolescence even in 1934, these 1200-tonish boats had a hard time in World War II (often under British flag) but gave a good account of themselves nonetheless.
The cruisers in the picture, two heavies (Indy and Chicago) and two light (Raleigh and Detroit), also had a hard war ahead of them. Chicago was Sunk during the Battle of Rennell Island, 30 January 1943. Indy was torpedoed and sunk on 30 July 1945 by Japanese submarine I-58, resulting in the loss of nearly 900 of her crew, mainly to shark attack. Raleigh took a torpedo at Pearl Harbor and almost sunk only to survive hard service to be scrapped in 1946. Detroit, also a Pearl survivor who was moored next to the doomed Utah, spirited out 9 short tons of gold and 13 short tons of silver from the Philippines in 1942 and helped with the recapture of the Aleutians before heading the breakers at the end of the conflict.
By and large all of the 50 impressive vessels in this image would be stricken, sunk, or scrapped by 1950.
Ships present include (left to right in lower left):
USS Elliot (DD 146);
USS Roper (DD 147);
USS Hale (DD 133);
USS Dorsey (DD 117);
USS Lea (DD 118);
USS Rathburne (DD 113); An old Wickes-class four-piper destroyer commissioned in 1918, likely the oldest tin can in the picture
USS Talbot (DD 114);
USS Waters (DD 115);
USS Dent (DD 116);
USS Aaron Ward (DD 132);
USS Buchanan (DD 131);
USS Crowninshield (DD 134);
USS Preble (DD 345); and
USS William B. Preston (DD 344).
(left to right in center):
USS Yarnall (DD 143);
USS Sands (DD 243);
USS Lawrence (DD 250);
(unidentified destroyer);
USS Detroit (CL 8), Flagship, Destroyers Battle Force; 7000-ton Omaha-class light cruiser
USS Fox (DD 234);
USS Greer (DD 145);
USS Barney (DD 149);
USS Tarbell (DD 142); and
USS Chicago (CA 29), Flagship, Cruisers Scouting Force; a 9200-ton Northampton-class heavy cruiser.
(left to right across the top):
USS Southard (DD 207);
USS Chandler (DD 206);
USS Farenholt (DD 332);
USS Perry (DD 340);
USS Wasmuth (DD 338);
USS Trever (DD 339);
USS Melville (AD 2); 7200-ton Destroyer Tender, commissioned in 1915 she is the oldest ship in the image but would outlive most.
USS Truxtun (DD 229);
USS McCormick (DD 223);
USS MacLeish (DD 220);
USS Simpson (DD 221);
USS Hovey (DD 208);
USS Long (DD 209);
USS Litchfield (DD 336);
USS Tracy (DD 214);
USS Dahlgren (DD 187);
USS Medusa (AR 1); 10,200-ton Repair Ship
USS Raleigh (CL 7), Flagship, Destroyers Scouting Force; another Omaha-class light cruiser
USS Pruitt (DD 347); a Clemson-class four piper destroyer commissioned in 1920, likely the newest tin can in the image
and
USS J. Fred Talbott (DD 156);
USS Dallas (DD 199);
(four unidentified destroyers);
and last but not least at top right, USS Indianapolis (CA 35), Flagship, Cruisers Scouting Force.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
