Miss Louise Bushnell White, sponsor, stands on the launching platform to pose for pictures on 14 December 1920 after smashing the customary bottle of champagne on the USS Omaha (CL 4) at Todd Shipyards in Tacoma. Miss White was chosen to represent her home town of Omaha, Nebraska, partially because she was a descendant of David Bushnell, inventor of the Revolutionary War one man submarine. Posing with her on the platform are (order unknown) C.W. Wiley of Seattle, president of Todd Drydocks Inc, William H. Todd of NYC, president of Todd Shipyards Corporation and J.A. Eves, General Manager of Todd Shipyards. The Omaha, the 27th launching at the Todd Yard, is the longest ship built in the Northwest and it is the first to be launched bow first.

Tacoma Public Library, Marvin D. Boland Collection, BOLAND-B3345

USS Omaha (CL 4) Takes To The Water At Tacoma

Explosion Damages USS Omaha (CL 4)

Captain of USS Omaha (CL 4) Congratulated

New Cruiser USS Omaha (CL 4) Making 36 Knots.

The Fastest Navy Ship Afloat The US Scout Cruiser USS Omaha (CL 4)
Broadside view of the Omaha: Note the guns forward. One of these six-inch guns can throw a 100-pound steel shot half way across the county. The radio gear makes the top of the vessel look like a clothes line......
Captain David Carlisle Hanrahan, Commanding Officer of the ship. One of the jolliest sailors in the Navy, they say, and oh yes girls, he's a bachelor!

Dress Ship while moored, port side to, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 24 May 1923.

National Archives, Seattle Branch, Record Group 181.

U. S. CRUISER MAKES WORLD’S RECORD

The scout cruiser USS Omaha (CL 4), of the United States Navy, hung up a new world’s record between Honolulu, Hawaiian Island, and San Francisco, making the voyage in 75 hours and 40 minutes, covering the 2,101 miles at average speed of 27.74 knots. She can log 35 knots. This record clips more than a full day off the best merchant liner record. Miss Margaret Carnegie Schuh was most anxious that the vessel break records, and she was waiting at the dock for her sweetheart. Captain Leon A DesPland Jr, an army officer, who came as a passenger on a 17-day leave of absence to marry her.

SCOUT CRUISER OMAHA, UNCLE SAM’S FASTEST SHIP

This speedy looking craft is Uncle Samuel’s newest and fastest man o’ war, the scout cruiser USS Omaha (CL 4), which recently made a record run with mail from Honolulu to the Pacific Coast in a little less that 3.5 days, the mail then going forward by train and air plane to Washington. Seated in his "remote control station, Capt. D. C. Hanrahan, U. S. N.. skipper of the Omaha, recently delivered a message from the vessel in the harbor of Hilo to the people of Honolulu, the first radio phone conversation between the two cities.

Omaha (CL 4) passing through the Panama Canal, circa 1925-1926.

Omaha (CL 4) class cruiser.

Ordered to Mexican Waters

8 Warships of U. S. Off for Mexico
1100 Bluejackets Are Aboard Cruiser USS Omaha (CL 4) and Six Destroyers Bound for Veracruz.

USS Omaha (CL 4) in Commencement Bay at the end of July 1924. The Omaha, a 550-foot 'scout cruiser', had steamed into the bay for a week's stay, accompanied by a squadron of six destroyers. The Omaha was the first of a ten ship class of 7,050 ton light cruisers. The ship was built at Todd Dry Dock of Tacoma and launched on 14 December 1920.

Tacoma Public Library, Marvin D. Boland Collection, BOLAND-B10599.

USS Omaha (CL 4) Passing the San Diego Naval Station, circa 1925-1926. Note the F5L seaplanes in the foreground.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph #NH 43053.

Excellent photo of USS Omaha (CL 4), taken in San Diego Bay. Date is not stated, but from a photo collection which is all dated between 1925 and 1929.

U.S. Navy Photo.

USS Omaha Liberty Men at Lava Beds at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii in 1932.

National Archives, Seattle Branch, Record Group 181.

View looking aft during Omaha's record setting run (at the time) from Honolulu to San Francisco. The run, which occurred in 1932, was completed in 75 Hours and 40 minutes.

National Archives, Seattle Branch, Record Group 181.

As temporary flagship (she flies a four-star flag at the main) for Adm. Richard H. Leigh, the USS Omaha (CL 4) is off Diamond Head, Honolulu, T.H., 20 October 1932. Close investigation of the image reveals a black-hulled admiral’s barge in skids to port of her no.2 stack.

U.S. National Archives, Photo #80-CF-2142

USS Omaha (CL 4) Underway, circa the early 1930s. The original photograph is dated 20 October 1936, but it was actually taken prior to Omaha's 1933 overhaul, during which her topmasts were reduced and a "bathtub" machinegun platform was fitted atop her foremast.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center #NH 97971.

USS Omaha (CL 4) View of the ship's forward superstructure, taken after overhaul at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, 29 August 1933. Note newly installed machine gun "bathtub" atop Omaha foremast, rangefinders and other fire control facilities on and about the mast, voice tubes running down from the masthead, 6"/53 guns in casemate mountings, and Battle Efficiency "E" painted on the pilothouse. Courtesy of Don S. Montgomery, USN (Retired).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph #NH 93507.

USS Omaha (CL 4) grounded in the Bahamas, 18 July 1937.

USS Omaha (CL 4) Aground in the Bahamas, 18 July 1937. Note lighthouse at right and vessels alongside Omaha.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph #NH 43061.

2 NAVY OFFICERS MOVED DOWN ON PROMOTION LIST
Action Result of Neglect in Grounding Ship

Capt. Howard B. Mecleary, commanding officer of the cruiser USS Omaha (CL 4), and Lieut. Comdr. Edgar R. Winckler, the ship’s navigator, today were placed far down on the Navy’s promotion lists for negligence in causing the cruiser to run aground in the Bahmas in July.
SWANSON ORDER
Upholding the verdict of the court-martial that both were guilty of neglect of duty, Secretary of the Navy Swanson ordered that Mecleary’s name be reduced 25 numbers on the promotion list for officers of his rank, or almost to the end, and Winckler’s name be dropped 75 numbers or to about the center of the list.
HEAVY DAMAGE
In running aground the cruiser suffered damage costing $200,000, the Navy Department said.

CAPT. LIND IN COMMAND OF CRUISER USS OMAHA (CL 4)

Aerial view of the USS Omaha (CL 4) released 10 March 1938, showing clearly the groups of .50 caliber antiaircraft machine guns in the foretop and on the after superstructure, and two Seagulls on her catapults.

U.S. National Archives, Photo #19-N-17951

Cruiser to Barcelona for Evacuation of Americans
U. S. Warships Take American Refugees Safely From City
Bomb Falls 100 Feet from Americans Before Naval Vessels take Them Away; Government Troops Are Still Holding Out in Barcelona Proper
With fall of Barcelona imminent, the U. S. cruiser USS Omaha (CL 4) was ordered to Caldetas, 20 miles north of the beleaguered city, to evacuate American refugees. Of the American group only about thirty are native born. The others are Filipinos, Puerto Ricans or of Spanish origin.

AMERICANS RESCUED UNDER REBEL BOMBS

Library of Congress, Photo No. LC-H22-D-7984

Odenwald Incident, November 1941 - USS Omaha (CL 4), in right center, standing by the German blockade runner Odenwald, which has a U.S. boarding party on board, in the South Atlantic, 6 November 1941. Photographed from USS Somers (DD 381).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph #NH 49935.

THE U. S. NAVY TAKES A PRIZE AT SEA

Swastika Hangs High as Spoils of War

First flag captured by the American Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic,this Swastika hangs as a souvenir in the office of Secretary of Navy Knox in Washington. It was taken from the German freighter Odenwald, although the Odenwald was flying the Stars and Stripes—not the Swastika when captured.

Omaha (CL 4) in Miami in 1941.

Omaha (CL 4) port bow view while pierside in Miami in 1941.

USS Omaha (CL 4) in New York Harbor, 10 February 1943.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives #19-N-40594.

USS Omaha (CL 4) off the New York Navy Yard, 10 February 1943.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center #NH 97972.

Omaha (CL 4) underway at speed, as seen from a plane flying out of NAS Coco Solo, 19 March 1943.

U.S. National Archives, Photo #80-G-567157

Charles Doyle Leffler, Jr., Commanded cruiser USS Omaha (CL 4)

A RECORD PRIZE
was trapped by three American warships. Including the cruiser USS Omaha (CL 4), above, when a trio of Nazi blockade runners, en route from far eastern Japanese ports, were intercepted and sunk in the South Atlantic, The enemy vessels, laden with thousands of tons of rubber, tin, fats and ores, were sunk in attempting to sneak across the South Atlantic. Hundreds of tons of baled rubber, found floating in the debris, was recovered and sent to the United States. In addition to the Omaha, the U. S. destroyers Somers (DD-381) and Jouett (DD-396) took part in the action.

USS Omaha (CL 4) recovers U-177 survivors after they had been rescued by one of the cruiser’s whaleboat crews, 6 February 1944.

U.S. National Archives, Photo #80-G-358559

USS Omaha (CL 4) during the invasion of Southern France, as seen from USS Philadelphia (CL 41) (one of the latter’s Curtiss SOC Seagulls can be seen in the right foreground), in an image received on 1 September 1944.

U.S. National Archives, Photo #80-G-256278

Library of Congress, HAER PA,51-PHILA,709D—20

Scrapping ex-USS Omaha (CL 4) proceeds at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, 10 January 1946. The ex-USS Raleigh (CL 7) is also being scrapped, lying next to the Omaha.

USS Omaha DANFS Ship's History Files