{| class="wikitable" style="clear:right; float:right; margin: 0em 0em 1em 1em; width: 300px; background:#ffffff"
|colspan="2"|300px|
|-
!colspan="2" style="background: #f0f0f0"|艦歴
|-
|発注:
|
|-
|起工:
|1930年9月1日
|-
|進水:
|1933年12月16日
|-
|就役:
|1934年4月28日
|-
|退役:
|
|-
|除籍:
|
|-
|その後:
|1942年8月9日に戦没
|-
!colspan="2" style="background: #f0f0f0"|性能諸元
|-
| style="white-space:nowrap;" |排水量: 
|9,950 トン
|-
|全長:
|588 ft (179 m)
|-
|全幅:
|61 ft 9 in (18.8 m)
|-
|吃水:
|19 ft 5 in (5.9 m)
|-
|機関:
|
|-
|最大速:
|32.7ノット (61 km/h)
|-
|乗員:
|士官、兵員899名
|-
|兵装:
|8インチ砲9門<br />5インチ砲8門<br />3ポンド砲2門<br />50口径機銃8門
|}
'''アストリア''' ('''USS Astoria, CA-34''') は、アメリカ海軍の重巡洋艦。ニューオーリンズ級重巡洋艦の2番艦。艦名はオレゴン州アストリアに因む。その名を持つ艦としては2隻目。

==艦歴==
アストリアは1930年9月1日にワシントン州ブレマートンのピュージェット・サウンド海軍造船所で起工する。1931年7月1日に CL-34 （軽巡洋艦）から CA-34 （重巡洋艦）に艦種変更され、1933年12月16日にレイラ・C・マッカイ（オレゴン州アストリアを創立したジョン・ジェイコブ・アスター遠征隊のメンバーであるアレクサンダー・マッカイの子孫）によって命名、進水し、1934年4月28日に艦長エドマンド・S・ルート大佐の指揮下就役した。

1934年の夏にアストリアは太平洋で長距離整調巡航を行う。ハワイ諸島に加え、サモア、フィジー、オーストラリアのシドニー、ニューカレドニアのヌーメアを訪問し、1934年9月26日にサンフランシスコに帰還した。

1934年秋から1937年2月までの間にアストリアは偵察部隊の第7巡洋艦分艦隊の一部としてサンペドロを拠点として作戦活動に従事した。1937年2月に第6巡洋艦分艦隊に配属され、活動を継続する。両艦隊での活動の間、アストリアは平時の通常任務を行った。

===最期===
しかしながら、デッキより下の火災は確実に強まり、爆発音が確認された。船体は10度から15度へと大きく傾いた。水線下に開いた穴により、傾斜を改善させる試みは全て無駄に終わり、傾斜の増加は続いた。ブキャナンが11:30に到着したが、アストリアの船体は大きく傾き接近することができなかった。ブキャナンはアストリアの右舷に位置し、救助の兵員は艦後部に集中した。アストリアのグリーンマン艦長は正午に艦の放棄を命じた。

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{{Infobox Ship Image
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|Ship caption=USS ''Astoria'' undergoing training off Hawaii, circa 8 July 1942
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|Ship laid down=1 September 1930
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|Ship armament=9 × 8&nbsp;in (203&nbsp;mm), <br/> 8 × 5&nbsp;in (127&nbsp;mm),<ref name="Fahey">Fahey 1941 p. 9</ref> <br/> 2 × 3&nbsp;pounder (1.4&nbsp;kg), <br/> 8 × .50 calibre (12.7&nbsp;mm) guns
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The second '''USS ''Astoria'' (CA-34)''' was a ''New Orleans''-class ''New Orleans'' (CA-32) because she was launched second. The class was later to be known as the ''New Orleans'' class after ''Astoria'' was sunk. Immediately following the ''New Orleans'' class.

== Construction, commissioning, shakedown cruise ==
''Astoria'' was laid down on 1 September 1930 at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, reclassified as a heavy cruiser CA-34 on 1 July 1931, launched on 16 December 1933, sponsored by Miss Leila C. McKay (a descendant of Alexander McKay, a member of the John Jacob Astor expedition that founded Astoria, Oregon), and commissioned on 28 April 1934, Captain Edmund S. Root in command.

During the summer of 1934, ''Astoria'' conducted  lengthy shake-down cruise in the course of which she voyaged extensively in the Pacific. In addition to the Hawaiian Islands, the heavy cruiser also visited Samoa, Fiji, Sydney Australia, and Nouméa on the island of New Caledonia. She returned to San Francisco on 26 September 1934. 

== Early career ==
Between the fall of 1934 and February 1937, she operated as a unit of Cruiser Division 7 (CruDiv&nbsp;7), Scouting Force, based at San Pedro, California. In February 1937, the warship was reassigned to CruDiv&nbsp;6, though she continued to serve as an element of Scouting Force based at San Pedro. In both assignments, she carried out normal peacetime maneuvers the culmination of which came in the annual fleet problem that brought the entire United States Fleet together in a single, vast exercise.

== Special duty: Hiroshi Saito's ashes ==
At the beginning of 1939, Fleet Problem XX concentrated the fleet in the West Indies and, at its conclusion ''Astoria'' made a hasty departure from Culebra Island on 3 March 1939 and headed for Chesapeake Bay. After taking on a capacity load of stores and fuel at Norfolk, Virginia, the heavy cruiser proceeded north to Annapolis, Maryland, where she embarked the remains of the former Japanese Ambassador to the United States, the late Hiroshi Saito, for the voyage to Japan, a gesture that expressed America's gratitude to the Japanese for returning the body of the late United States Ambassador to Japan, Edgar A. Bancroft, in one of their warships in 1926. ''Astoria'' sailed from Annapolis on 18 March 1939, Saito's ashes accompanied by Naokichi Kitazawa, Second Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Washington.

Arriving in the Diamond Head in her wake as she proceeded westward across the Pacific.

Accompanied by the destroyers ''Hibiki'', ''Sagiri'', ''Akatsuki'', ''Astoria'' steamed slowly into 21-gun salute which was returned by the Kiso''. American sailors carried the ceremonial urn ashore that afternoon, and funeral ceremonies took place the following morning.

After the solemn state funeral, the Japanese showered lavish hospitality on the visiting cruiser and her men. Capt. Turner, for his part, pleased Ambassador to Japan Joseph C. Grew by his diplomatic role in the proceedings; the naval attaché in Tokyo, Capt. Harold M. Bemis, later recorded that the choice of Turner for that delicate mission was "particularly fortunate...."  In grateful appreciation of American sympathy and courtesy a pagoda was later presented by Hirosi Saito's wife and child. [http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0003258.htm That pagoda] is located in front of Luce Hall at the United States Naval Academy.

== April–May 1939  ==
''Astoria'' sailed for ''Penguin'' and ''Robert L. Barnes'' in their successful effort to refloat the grounded Army transport USAT ''U.&nbsp;S. Grant''. Soon thereafter, ''Astoria'' joined the search for the noted author and adventurer ''Sea Dragon''. The cruiser combed more than 162,000 square miles of the Pacific, without success, before she discontinued the search on 29 May.

== Pearl Harbor ==
=== Reassigned to Pearl Harbor ===

Assigned to the Hawaiian Detachment in October 1939, ''Astoria'' changed home ports from San Pedro to Pearl Harbor. The following spring, she participated in Fleet Problem XXI, the last of those major annual exercises that brought the entire United States Fleet together to be conducted before World War II engulfed the United States. The maneuvers took place in Hawaiian waters, and, instead of returning to the west coast at their conclusion, the bulk of the fleet joined ''Astoria'' and the Hawaiian Detachment in making Pearl Harbor its base of operations.

On 1.1&nbsp;inch antiaircraft guns and a pedestal fitted at her foremast in anticipation of the imminent installation of the new air-search radar. Emerging from the yard on 11 July 1941, the heavy cruiser sailed for Long Beach on the 16th. Later shifting to San Pedro, ''Astoria'' sailed for Pearl Harbor on 24 July 1941.

Following her return to Hawaii on Midway through early September. That autumn, the specter of German raiders on the prowl in the Pacific prompted the Navy to ''Henderson'' (AP-1) to Manila and thence to Guam, before returning to Pearl Harbor on 29 October. Local patrols and training, alternated with upkeep in port, occupied ''Astoria'' during the final five weeks of peace.

=== December 1941 ===
After rising tensions in the Pacific intensified his concern over the defenses of his outlying bases at the beginning of December 1941, Admiral Pacific Fleet/United States Fleet, ordered reinforcements, in the form of Marine Corps planes, to be ferried to ''Lexington''. Once the task force reached open sea, ''Lexington''’s air group and the 18 Vought SB2U-3 Vindicators from Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 231 (VMSB-231) bound for Midway landed on the carrier's flight deck.

When the Japanese attacked the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on the morning of ''Indianapolis'', flagship of Vice Admiral Wilson Brown, Commander, Scouting Force, joined up with TF&nbsp;12, and Brown assumed command. Its ferry mission canceled, TF&nbsp;12 spent the next few days searching an area to the southwest of Oahu, "with instructions to intercept and destroy any enemy ship in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor...."

The cruiser reentered Pearl Harbor with the ''Lexington'' force on oiler ''Neches'' and the seaplane tender ''Tangier'' — the abortive Wake Island relief expedition. When that island fell to the Japanese on 23 December however, the force was recalled. ''Astoria'' remained at sea until the afternoon of 29 December when she arrived back at Oahu. When the Astoria was moored in Pearl Harbor she had about 40 sailors from the battleship USS ''California'' transferred to her ranks.  They were survivors of December 7th when the ''California'' was sunk at Berth F4 on Battleship Row. One of these sailors was Machinist Mate 1st Class Martin W. Bender.

''Astoria'' departed Pearl Harbor again on the morning of ''Saratoga'', and remained at sea into the second week of January 1942. On ''I-6'' torpedoed the carrier, forcing her retirement to Pearl Harbor. ''Astoria'' and her colleagues in the task force saw the crippled carrier safely into port on the morning of 13 January 1942.

After a brief respite at Pearl Harbor, ''Astoria'' returned to sea on ''Chicago'', ''Minneapolis'' and nine ''I-17''. Without the oiler's precious cargo of fuel, TF&nbsp;11 could not execute the planned strike. Ordered back to Oahu, the task force reentered Pearl Harbor on the morning of 24 January.

== Southwestern Pacific cruise: TF&nbsp;17 (USS ''Yorktown'') ==
On ''Yorktown'' and comprising ''Louisville'', ''Sims'', ''Anderson'', ''Hammann'', ''Walke'', and the oiler ''Guadalupe'', all under the command of Rear Admiral Bougainville on 20 February 1942, Vice Admiral Brown asked for a second carrier to strengthen his force for another crack at Rabaul. Accordingly, TF&nbsp;17 received orders to aid Brown in that attempt, and ''Astoria'' steamed with ''Yorktown'' to a rendezvous with TF&nbsp;11 that took place southwest of the New Hebrides on 6 March.

The combined force, under Brown, stood toward Rabaul until the Japanese landings at Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea prompted a change of plans. Late on HMAS ''Australia'', and four destroyers, ''Anderson'', ''Hammann'', ''Hughes'', and ''Sims'' under the command of Rear Admiral John G. Crace, that Brown detached to operate in the waters off Rossel Island in the Louisiade Archipelago. The heavy cruiser and the other warships of that force carried out a threefold mission. They secured the carriers' right flank during their operations in the Gulf of Papua; they shielded Port Moresby from any new enemy thrust; and they covered the arrival of Army troops at Nouméa.

The raids on Lae and Salamaua, conducted by 104 planes from ''Yorktown'' and ''Lexington'' on 10 March 1942 proved devastating to the Japanese, causing heavy damage to their already depleted amphibious forces by sinking three transports and a minesweeper, as well as damaging a light cruiser, a large minelayer, three destroyers and a seaplane carrier. More importantly, the attack delayed the Japanese timetable for conquest in the Solomons and prompted them to send aircraft carriers to cover the operation. The delay, which also allowed the United States Navy time to marshal its forces, coupled with the dispatch of Japanese carriers led to the confrontation in the Coral Sea.

=== The Coral Sea ===
''Astoria'' rejoined TF&nbsp;17 on ''Bridge'' (AF-1) at Nouméa along with ''Portland'' (CA-33), ''Hughes'' and ''Walke''. Arriving on 1 April, the cruiser remained there only briefly, returning to sea the following day. The warship marched and counter-marched across the Coral Sea for two weeks before TF&nbsp;17 headed for Tongatapu, where she and the ''Yorktown'' force spent the week 20 April to 27 April.

About this time, intelligence reports convinced Admiral Nimitz that the enemy sought to take Port Moresby, on the southeastern coast of New Guinea, and he resolved to thwart those designs. He sent TF&nbsp;11, built around a refurbished ''Lexington'' and led by a new commander, Rear Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch, to join Fletcher's TF&nbsp;17 in the Coral Sea. ''Astoria'' returned to sea with TF&nbsp;17 on 27 April to rendezvous with TF&nbsp;11. The two carrier task forces met in the eastern Coral Sea early on the morning of 1 May.

Late in the afternoon of ''Chester'' (CA-27) to finish off the crippled ships at Tulagi with surface gunnery, but demurred and kept his force concentrated in anticipation of further action.

Next came a two-day lull on light carrier '' Shōhō''. Japanese planes, however, located and sank the oiler ''Neosho'' and her escort, ''Sims''.