Here's my second rendition of these beautiful ships: the
USS St Paul (CA-73) as she appeared during her last decade of service. She was in service for 26 years uninterupted, till her decommissioning in Feb. 1971.
Here she is serving as the permanent flagship of the US First Fleet, during which time she made numerous sorties to bombard North Vietnamese positions and Viet-Cong strongholds.
She has lost her forward 5" turret; its base, shell- handling rooms and magazine all being converted to additional office spaces for an ever increasing fleet flagstaff. She also now carries only 12 3" guns; the forward most and the two forward beam gun tubs having been entirely removed.
Her radar outfit is different from her sister the
Helena: She carries one SPS-29 radar on her foremast and the SPS-8A on her pole mainmast. Also she still retains her aft Mk34 secondary gun director, instead of
Helena's SPS-12 radar.