USS Salem (CS-3)

History: USS Salem (CS-3/CL-3), Scout Cruiser No. 3, was a Chester-class scout cruiser of the United States Navy. She was the first Navy ship named for the city of Salem, Massachusetts. Salem was laid down on 28 August 1905, by the Fore River Shipyard; launched on 27 July 1907, sponsored by Mrs. Lorna Pinnock; and commissioned on 1 August 1908, Commander Henry B. Wilson in command.

Class: The three Chester-class cruisers were the first United States Navy vessels to be designed and designated as fast "scout cruisers" for fleet reconnaissance. They had high speed but little armor or armament.[2] They were authorized in January 1904, ordered in fiscal year 1905, and completed in 1908. In 1920 all scout cruisers were redesignated as "light cruisers" (CL).

Birmingham was the first ship in the world to launch an airplane, in 1910 with pilot Eugene Ely, who also performed the first landing on a ship the following year, on USS Pennsylvania.[4] The class patrolled the Caribbean prior to World War I, sometimes supporting military interventions, with Chester playing a key role at the start of the United States occupation of Veracruz in 1914. The ships escorted convoys in World War I. The class was decommissioned 1921-1923 and sold for scrap to comply with the limits of the London Naval Treaty in 1930.

Nationality: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.