Wreck of USS Vincennes (CA-44)

USS Vincennes was the final member of the New Orleans Class of Heavy Cruisers built and was in service with the US Navy during the Second World War, earning a Battle Star for the Battle of Midway with her sistership USS Astoria. On August 9th, 1942, Vincennes was again with her sistership USS Astoria, and her sistership USS Quincy, part of a patrol covering the amphibious landings on Guadalcanal.

Steaming at the lead of the three-ship convoy, the crew of Vincennes unknowingly watched a powerful Japanese Cruiser and Destroyer force inflicting a one-sided beating on the HMAS Canberra and the USS Chicago, assuming the flashes and flares to the South were part of the ground assault. After fatally damaging the Canberra and damaging the Chicago the Japanese force then split in two and aimed directly for the Vincennes and her sisters, who found themselves illuminated by Japanese searchlights at 01:50AM. Vincennes' Captain Frederick Riefkohl immediately got to the bridge from his berth and ordered the ships nine 8-inch guns to open fire on the source of the searchlights.

Unfortunately for the Vincennes the Japanese Cruisers and Destroyers, masters of night combat, had already fixed their range and began firing before Vincennes could even train her guns on her attackers. The first Japanese salvo crossed the ships midsection, destroying her secondary control post and most of her radio communication gear. The second salvo destroyed her vulnerable hanger area, where her scout planes were blown to pieces and showered her midship area in burning gasoline, providing the Japanese gunners with a brightly lit target. More and more shells crashed into the Vincennes, still moving at patrol speed of 19 knots, followed by two torpedoes which blew apart her boiler room and doused her fires. Gradually the Vincennes slowed to a halt as her engine room began to flood, and her gun turrets slowly lost power. By 02:10AM, a mere 20 minutes into the battle, the Vincennes was out of action, flaming heavily from the stern and slowly increasing her list to port. The assailing Japanese Cruisers passed her by and concentrated their fire on her sisterships, leaving the Vincennes to her fate.

At 02:30 Captain Reifkohl ordered the ship abandoned as her list began to increase with greater speed. As the last of the living crew entered the water, Reifkohl abandoned ship and later noted "The magnificent Vincennes, which we were all so proud of, and which I had the honor to command since 23 April 1941, rolled over and then sank at about 02:50, 9 August 1942, about 2½ miles east of Savo Island ... Solomons Group, in some 500 fathoms of water."

www.navsource.org/archives/04/044/04044.htm