Speaking of oddities, certain events over the last couple years had me re-reading some of the books in my collection, which fits in amazingly well with this particular ship.  And it probably cover the same circumstance, or at least the period of time, FDM mentioned.

Interesting ship, that.

The white paint job is curious. That isn't combat colors. I wonder whether it's part of the "Great White Fleet", before WWI?

Also, those are mighty small guns. Can't be a BB, and probably isn't a CA either. I'm guessing it'll turn out to be a CL.

The white-ish paint was used quite a bit on US Navy ships deployed in the tropics during peacetime - USS AUGUSTA had a white-ish hull color scheme when she was assigned to the Asiatic Fleet, for example.  The PHOENIX spent some time visiting South American ports prior to the outbreak of the war, so the photo is probably from that time.

C.T.