USS Northampton from carrier escort to Tassafaronga

The ship changed from CL-26 to CA-26 by administrative designation rather than reconstruction. She earned six battle stars in less than a year of American wartime service and was at sea with Enterprise when Pearl Harbor was attacked, performing the fast-carrier role for which the design made sense. Her loss at Tassafaronga followed a failure to zigzag and the mistaken assumption that enemy torpedoes lacked sufficient range. The possibility of an unseen submarine alone justified routine evasive movement, separating the tactical error that exposed Northampton from the limited protection that made the hit so damaging.