Stuff You Should Know
USS Northampton was an Oregon City-class light cruiser laid down on August 31, 1944 and launched on January 27, 1951. It was commissioned on March 7, 1953 under Capt. William D. Irvin’s command as CA-125 and served in the US Navy for 17 years until it decommissioned on April 8, 1970. On April 15, 1961, the ship was reclassified as CC-1. During its activities, the ship carried a complement of 2,000 people on board and had the main missions in Portsmouth, Cuba or Panama. After the decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy List on December 31, 1977 and sold for scrapping the same year.