On October 23, 2024, the US Navy announced that after twenty-five years, a ship commissioned the USS Atlanta will once again sail the seas of the world. The last USS Atlanta, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, was retired in 1999, the fifth such ship to bear the name of the city.
“The naming of this ship is a testament to Atlanta’s history as the cradle of the civil rights movement,” said Congresswoman Nikema Williams, from Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, at a ship naming ceremony held at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. “As this vessel sails across the globe, it will carry with it the legacy of civil and human rights leaders like Congressman John Lewis and President Jimmy Carter, embodying Atlanta’s unbreakable spirit and the fight for justice that continues today.”
According to the Navy’s press release, “The future USS Atlanta honors the city of Atlanta, and the crews of the five previous Navy vessels named Atlanta.
A Brief History of the Many USS Atlantas
For more than 160 years, warships carrying the name USS Atlanta have participated in a variety of important historical events.
USS Atlanta 2, 1891
The first warship called Atlanta served the Confederacy during the Civil War and was known as the CSS Atlanta. The US Navy captured the ship near Savannah in 1863 and renamed it the USS Atlanta. Following the Civil War, the ship was decommissioned and sold to a private company, before sinking during a storm in 1869.
The US Navy christened the second USS Atlanta in 1884. It was one of the first of a new class of steel cruisers, and later served as a barracks ship before its scrapping in 1912. It would be thirty years before another USS Atlanta would join the Navy’s ranks, and this time, with a much more active battle record.[1]
Margaret Mitchell on board the USS Atlanta for the christening in 1942.
The third USS Atlanta, was a light anti-aircraft cruiser known officially as CL-51 (for “cruiser, light”), but affectionately nicknamed by her crew the “Mighty A.” Launched in September 1941, the ship was christened by famous Atlanta author Margaret Mitchell in December 1941, shortly after the United States officially entered World War II following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Six months later, in June 1942, the USS Atlanta escorted aircraft carriers USS Enterprise and USS Hornet into one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II—the Battle of Midway. During the course of the battle, four of the six Japanese naval carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor were sunk. The defeat was catastrophic for Japan and changed the balance of power in the Pacific, enabling the United States to pursue an offensive strategy during the remainder of the war. [2]
In August of 1942, the United States launched an amphibious landing at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, starting a seven-month offensive campaign.[3] In the early morning hours of November 13, 1942, during the Third Battle of Savo Island, the Atlanta was serving as flagship of a small task force when it became embroiled in a bitter and confusing night action. Large-caliber shells and torpedo fire severely damaged the USS Atlanta, killing one hundred seventy-two crewmen as well as Admiral Norman Scott, who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. [4] Due to the extent of the damage, the US Navy made the decision to deliberately scuttle the ship to prevent it falling into enemy hands. The “Mighty A” received five battle stars for her service. Of the service of the USS Atlanta, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox wrote “Struck by one torpedo and no less than 49 shells, the Atlanta, after sinking an enemy destroyer and repeatedly hitting a cruiser which later went down, gallantly remained in battle under auxiliary power with one-third of her crew killed or missing, her engine room flooded and her topside a shambles. Eventually succumbing to her wounds after the enemy had fled in defeat, she left behind her a heroic example of invincible fighting spirit.” [5] The original 1941 builders’ model of the third USS Atlanta (CL-51) is on display at Atlanta History Center.
After learning of the loss of their namesake ship, Atlantans initiated a successful $64 million war bonds fundraising campaign, to build another cruiser bearing the name Atlanta. The new warship, completed in 1944 and officially known as CL-104, was once again christened by Margaret Mitchell. The light cruiser was deployed to the Pacific theater, to, as commanding officer Captain Colyear put it at the dedication ceremony, “to fight and destroy our enemies.”[6] This vessel survived the war, remaining in service until being sunk in a demolition test in 1970.
The fifth USS Atlanta was a departure from the previous models—as a nuclear-powered attack submarine known as SSN-712, it patrolled the ocean at the height of the Cold War beginning in 1982 until its decommissioning in 1999. The submarine was a Los Angeles class submarine and completed deployments in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. It was the first of the US Atlantic Fleet to have the ability to carry Tomahawk cruise missiles. [7]
The name USS Atlanta carries great significance in the US Navy. It is a name that has graced US Navy warships from the Civil War until the present day, and recalls some of the most significant moments in US history.
Atlanta History Center holds significant photographs, documents, and artifacts from all five ships bearing the name USS Atlanta, including the ship’s bell of the 1848 USS Atlanta, the remains of the bottle Margaret Mitchell used to christen the USS Atlanta in 1941, and a variety of special objects selected for the Center’s collection by the crew of the submarine USS Atlanta when it was decommissioned in 1999.
The sixth USS Atlanta will have its own chapter to write in US history—one that begins on October 23, 2024.
[1] Panel text
[2] https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/battle-midway
[3] https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/solomon-islands-campaign-guadalcanal
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Scott_(admiral)
[5] “At Close Range,” The Morning Union, October 18, 1943, P. 7
[6]USS. Atlanta, The Atlanta Constitution, December 4, 1944, p. 5
[7] https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/ship/docs/990120-atlanta.htm