USS Omaha (CL-4) was the lead ship of the light cruiser of the United States Navy. She was originally classified as a scout cruiser. She was the second US Navy ship named for the city of Omaha, Nebraska, the first being , a screw sloop launched in 1869. Omaha spent most of her career in the Pacific. At this time her primary mission was training, and she proved to be very capable by consistently winning fleet awards in gunnery and communications. She made many ports-of-call throughout the Pacific, Mediterranean and Caribbean during her peacetime cruises, displaying the Stars and Stripes. In 1941, prior to the US entering the war, she was assigned to Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic, based in Recife, Brazil. Nearly a month before the US entered the war she captured the German blockade runner SS Odenwald, for which she holds the claim as being the last US Navy ship to be awarded "prize" money. After the US entered the war she continued her activities of guarding convoys in the Atlantic between South America and Western Africa. During this time she sank two German blockade runners and was responsible for rescuing many crewmen whose ships had been sunk by Axis submarines and merchant raiders. In 1944, she sailed for the Mediterranean to support Operation Dragoon, the invasion of the south of France. After the war she was quickly deemed surplus and scrapped at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in February 1946. Construction and design Omahas keel was laid down by the Todd Dry Dock and Construction Company of Tacoma, Washington, on 6 December 1918. She was launched on 14 December 1920. Omaha was sponsored by Louise Bushnell White, a descendant of David Bushnell, the inventor of the first documented submarine to be used in combat, Turtle. She was commissioned on 24 February 1923, with Captain David C. Hanrahan in command. Omaha was long at the waterline with an overall length of , her beam was and a mean draft of . Her standard displacement was and at full load. Her crew during peacetime consisted of 29 officers and 429 enlisted men. Omaha was powered by four Westinghouse geared steam turbines, each driving one screw, using steam generated by 12 Yarrow boilers. The engines were designed to produce and reach a top speed of . Though the ship's design was intended to provide a range of at a speed of