USS San Juan (CL-54)  The second USS "San Juan" (CL-54), and the first to be named for the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, was an "Atlanta"-class light cruiser of the United States Navy. She was laid down on 15 May 1940 by the Bethlehem Steel Co. (Fore River), Quincy, Massachusetts; launched on 6 September 1941; sponsored by Mrs. Margarita Coll de Santori; and commissioned on 28 February 1942, Captain James E. Maher in command. After shakedown in the Atlantic, "San Juan" departed from Hampton Roads, Virginia on 5 June 1942 as part of a carrier task group formed around and bound for the Pacific. The group got underway from San Diego on 30 June escorting a large group of troop transports destined for the Solomon Islands where the Navy was about to launch the first major American amphibious operation of the war. Following rehearsal in the Fiji Islands, "San Juan" provided gunfire support for the landings at Tulagi on 7 August 1942. On the night of 8–9 August, she was patrolling the eastern approaches to the transport area between Tulagi and Guadalcanal, with Admiral Norman Scott embarked, when gun flashes indicated that fighting was taking place in the western approaches. The action turned out to be the Battle of Savo Island, in which an enemy cruiser force sank four Allied cruisers. "San Juan" retired from the forward area with the empty transports on the 9th and escorted them to Noumea. She then rejoined "Wasp" and operated with the carrier force for several weeks between the New Hebrides and the Solomons, on guard against a Japanese carrier attack. However, when this strike materialized on 24 August, "San Juan" had withdrawn to refuel and thus missed the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. was hit in the battle, and "San Juan", which had damaged a gun mount off Guadalcanal, escorted the carrier to Pearl Harbor, arriving on 10 September 1942. On 5 October, the cruiser again headed for the South Pacific, stopping first at Funafuti in the Ellice Islands to deliver a deck load of 20 mm guns to the marines who had just landed there. She then carried out a raid through the Gilberts sinking two Japanese patrol vessels on 16 October. Disembarking Japanese prisoners at Espiritu Santo, the cruiser joined "Enterprise" on the 23rd. Three days later, after patrol planes had made contact with enemy carrier forces, the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands was fought in which was lost and "Enterprise" damaged while the Japanese suffered severe losses in aircraft and pilots.