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  Baltimore

Ships

No	Name	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comm	Fate
C3, 7.1920- CM1	Baltimore	254	Cramp, Philadelphia	5.5.1887	6.10.1888	7.1.1890	minelayer 1914, stricken 10.1937

Technical data

Displacement normal, t	4413
Displacement full, t	5436
Length, m	102.1
Breadth, m	14.8
Draught, m	5.94 mean
No of shafts	2
Machinery	2 HTE, 4 cylindrical boilers
Power, h. p.	10750
Max speed, kts	19
Fuel, t	coal 1144
Endurance, nm(kts)	5000(10)
Armour, mm	steel - deck: 64 with 102mm slopes, CT: 76
Armament	4 x 1 - 203/31 Mk II, 6 x 1 - 152/30 Mk III, 4 x 1 - 57/40 Hotchkiss Mk I/II, 2 x 1 - 47/40 Hotchkiss Mk I/Driggs-Schroeder Mk I, 2 x 1 - 37/20 Hotchkiss Mk I
Complement	386

Standard scale images

Graphics

Project history

Authorized under the Act of 3.8.1886. Based on an Elswick design which was unsuccessful in the competition for the ill-fated Spanish cruiser Reina Regente. 203mm guns were arranged in sponsons at forecastle and poop and 152mm in sponsons at upper deck amidships.

Ship protection

Protective deck was 64mm at flat part with 102mm slopes amidships and CT 76mm had 76mm sides.

Modernizations

(1900-1903): - 4 x 1 - 203/31, 6 x 1 - 152/30; + 12 x 1 - 152/41 Mk VII, old boilers were replaced by 8 Babcock & Wilcox

(1913 - 1914, Charleston N Yd): cruiser was rebuilt as minelayer. Armament consisted of 8 x 1 -127/40 Mk III, 180 mines.

to 1919: - 8 x 1 - 127/40; + 4 x 1 - 127/51 Mk VIII, 2 x 1 - 76/52 Mk X

Naval service

 Baltimore was decommissioned in 1922 but sold for scrap only in February, 1942. She served as a receiving ship at Charleston in 1911-1912, and was converted to a minelayer at that yard in 1913— 1914. During the First World War Baltimore took part in laying the Northern Mine Barrage. Decommissioned at Pearl Harbor in 1922, Baltimore was not sold for 20 years. She was perhaps the best of the US Cruisers laid down in the 1880s.