Chester-class cruiser

The three Chester-class cruisers were the first United States Navy vessels designated fast scout cruisers for fleet reconnaissance, with high speed but little armor or armament. They were authorized in January 1904, ordered in fiscal year 1905 and completed in 1908, and in 1920 all scout cruisers were redesignated light cruisers. The class was experimental, each ship built with a different type of engine; Salem proved the best of them although its Curtis turbines did not live up to expectations. Birmingham was the first ship in the world to launch an airplane, in 1910 with the pilot Eugene Ely. The ships patrolled the Caribbean before the First World War, with Chester playing a key role at the start of the occupation of Veracruz in 1914, and escorted convoys during the war. The class was decommissioned in 1921 to 1923 and sold for scrap under the London Naval Treaty limits. Bath Iron Works in Maine launched the lead ship, Chester.