The cruiser USS New Orleans, as seen here in 1934, upheld the honor of her namesake city in practically every major World War II naval battle in the Pacific Theater.
Although built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the day she was launched had a special New Orleans connection. The National World War II Museum in New Orleans describes the event:
“On a rainy April day in 1933, a young New Orleanian, Cora S. Jahncke, was the sponsor for its launch. The 18-year-old and her father, the newly retired Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy Ernest L. Jahncke, conspired to buck tradition and christen the ship not with the traditional Champagne, but with Mississippi River water. Cora smashed the bottle against the as-not-yet infamous knife-edged bow, and the cruiser named after ‘The Big Easy’ began her illustrious career.”
And what an “illustrious career” it had during WWII — Pearl Harbor, the Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, the Battle of Tassafaronga, Wake Island, New Guinea, Marianas, the Philippine Sea, Saipan, Okinawa and the Battle of Samar.
During the Battle of Tassafaronga off Guadalcanal on Nov. 30, 1942, a disastrous thing happened. A Japanese torpedo blew off the ship’s bow, killing 180 crew members. Miraculously, survivors kept her afloat. According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, the wounded vessel limped its way to Tulagi Harbor where “the crew jury-rigged a bow of coconut logs.” From Tulagi, the New Orleans sailed “backwards” to Sydney, Australia, for additional repairs. From there it moved on in early March 1943 to the Puget Sound Navy Yard where workers attached a new bow.
Surprisingly, in July 2025 scientists aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus located the lost bow deep at the bottom of the ocean off Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
When the war ended in the Pacific in Aug. 1945, the New Orleans evacuated allied troops from Guam before sailing on to the Philadelphia Navy Yard in early 1946. On the way, she made a celebratory ten-day stopover in New Orleans in late February during the days leading up to Mardi Gras. What a scene it must have been for the war-wearied crew members. To honor their service, the city and carnival organizations invited the ship’s officers and enlisted personnel to concerts, costume balls, dances, and even provided trucks for them to participate in some of the parades.
Finally, the proud and weary cruiser, having survived the worst naval battles in history, steamed its way to Philadelphia and its ignominious fate. In 1947 the Navy decommissioned her, and 10 years later, sold her for scrap.
Noting that inglorious ending, the National World War II Museum has given her a fitting epitaph: “The final chapter of the USS New Orleans was not befitting a warship adorned with 17 battle stars in World War II.”
The WWII Museum is now paying tribute to the New Orleans in a new exhibit up through Feb. 14, 2027.
