Out of a bit of frustration of no large playable American surface ships, I decided to make one myself. I chose the Northampton/Portland class since the Indianapolis was the first US Navy ship I ever heard of, and it's reasonably big to provide some intense battles.
If any talented modders out there could look at this and help me figure out what's wrong, I'll definetely be indebted to you.
UPDATE: 0.6 Version ready. I linked the 8 inch guns to the Northampton node but it didn't make a difference for me. Maybe it does for you, take a look:
http://files.filefront.com/Playable+.../fileinfo.html
It's JGSME ready, just unzip to your mods folder. W4lter's range fix is already integrated.