USS San Juan (CL-54)

History
Name:	San Juan
Namesake:	The Municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico
Builder:	Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts
Laid down:	15 May 1940
Launched:	6 September 1941
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Margarita Coll de Santori
Commissioned:	28 February 1942
Decommissioned:	9 November 1946
Reclassified:	CLAA-54, 28 February 1949
Struck:	1 May 1959
Identification:	Hull symbol:CL-54 Hull symbol:CLAA-54 Code letters:NCEL
Honors and awards:	13 × battle stars
Fate:	Sold for scrapping, 31 October 1961
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	Atlanta-class light cruiser
Displacement:	6,718 long tons (6,826 t) (standard) 8,340 long tons (8,470 t) (max)
Length:	541 ft 6 in (165.05 m) oa
Beam:	53 ft (16 m)
Draft:	20 ft 6 in (6.25 m) (mean) 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m) (max)
Installed power:	4 × Steam boilers 75,000 shp (56,000 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × geared turbines 2 × screws
Speed:	32.5 kn (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h)
Complement:	820 officers and enlisted
Armament:	16 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 caliber Mark 12 guns (8×2) 16 × 1.1 in (28 mm)/75 anti-aircraft guns (4×4) 8 × single 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons 8 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 × depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge tracks
Armor:	Belt: 1.1–3 3⁄4 in (28–95 mm) Deck: 1 1⁄4 in (32 mm) Turrets: 1 1⁄4 in (32 mm) Conning Tower: 2 1⁄2 in (64 mm)
General characteristics (1945)
Armament:	16 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 caliber Mark 12 guns (8×2) 1 × quad 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns 5 × twin 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns 13 × 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons 8 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 × depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge tracks

The second US Navy ship to be named San Juan and the first to be named for the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, USS San Juan (CL-54), an Atlanta-class light cruiser of the United States Navy of World War II. She was laid down on 15 May 1940 by the Bethlehem Steel Co. (Fore River), Quincy, Massachusetts; launched on 6 September 1941; sponsored by Mrs. Margarita Coll de Santori; and commissioned on 28 February 1942, Captain James E. Maher in command.

After shakedown in the Atlantic, San Juan departed from Hampton Roads, Virginia on 5 June 1942 as part of a carrier task group formed around Wasp and bound for the Pacific. The group got underway from San Diego on 30 June escorting a large group of troop transports destined for the Solomon Islands where the Navy was about to launch the first major American amphibious operation of the war.

Following rehearsal in the Fiji Islands, San Juan provided gunfire support for the landings at Tulagi on 7 August 1942. On the night of 8–9 August, she was patrolling the eastern approaches to the transport area between Tulagi and Guadalcanal when gun flashes indicated that fighting was taking place in the western approaches. The action turned out to be the Battle of Savo Island, in which an enemy cruiser force sank four Allied cruisers. San Juan retired from the forward area with the empty transports on the 9th and escorted them to Noumea.

She then rejoined Wasp and operated with the carrier force for several weeks between the New Hebrides and the Solomons, on guard against a Japanese carrier attack. However, when this strike materialized on 24 August, San Juan had withdrawn to refuel and thus missed the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Enterprise was hit in the battle, and San Juan, which had damaged a gun mount off Guadalcanal, escorted the carrier to Pearl Harbor, arriving on 10 September 1942.

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