The Portland class cruisers were originally intended to be little more than an Improved Northampton class. As a follow-on class to the underweight Northhamptons, originally 5 were intended, but only 2 were completed as Portlands. The other three hulls were allocated into the following New Orleans class. The Portlands had additional armor over the machinery spaces and double the secondary battery of the Northampton design, while the torpedo tubes and bulbous bow were deleted. The torpedo tubes no longer fitting into USN cruiser doctrine, and it was believed the bulbous bow would cause pounding and subsequent damage to the frames.
The USS Indianapolis CA-35 was commissioned in November of 1932. The Indianapolis worked up and trained heavily in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the years preceding World War Two. She is perhaps best known for 2 events in her life; she carrying the parts for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Little Boy, to Tinian Island in July of 1945. She is perhaps better know for her loss 2 weeks later, on 30 July 45, which led to the single largest loss of life at sea in the history of the United States Navy.
On 19 August 2017, a search team financed by Paul Allen located the wreckage of the sunken cruiser in the Philippine Sea lying at a depth of approximately 18,000 ft (5,500 m). On December 20, 2018, the crew of the Indianapolis was collectively awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
