U.S.A. CRUISER

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 February 1939, Page 12

U.S.A. CRUISER

ARMAMENTS OF THE BOISE. CAPE TOWN, January 4. One of the most interesting ships to visit the Cape for many years was the United States cruiser Boise, which spent ten days in Table Bay. She received an extremely enthusiastic welcome and an almost continuous round of entertainments was arranged in her honour.

This was the maiden voyage of the Boise. The ship belongs to the most remarkable class of cruisers in the United States Navy. She and her eight sister ships were laid down as a reply to Japan's Mogami class. They are built to the utmost limits allowed by the Washington Naval Agreement, which lays down restrictions of 10,000 tons and 6-inch guns, of which they have 15.

The guns of the Boise are mounted in five groups of triple turrets, three forward and two aft. For the first time in naval history, all 15 guns can be brought to bear on either beam and aimed at the same target. They can be fired at the amazing speed of six salvoes a minute, enabling the Boise to hurl over five tons of high explosives a minute at a target 14 miles distant. .

Eight 5-inch anti-aircraft guns, the most powerful in the world for any cruiser, can fire about SO shells a. minute at hostile aircraft more than five miles up in the air. For work at close quarters, or to repel torpedo attacks, all the anti-air-craft guns can be depressed to engage surfacecraft within a few hundred yards of the cruiser.

With these and her 6-inch gnus in action, the cruiser can practically “unround herself with a curtain of high explosives.