The ''Florida''-class
battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
s of the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
comprised two ships: and . Launched in 1910 and 1909 respectively and commissioned in 1911, they were slightly larger than the preceding design but were otherwise very similar. This was the first US battleship class in which all ships received
steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
engines. In the previous ''Delaware''-class, received steam turbine propulsion as an experiment while retained
triple-expansion engines
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
.
Both ships were involved in the 1914
Second Battle of Vera Cruz, deploying their
Marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
contingents as part of the operation. Following the entrance of the United States into
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in 1917, both ships were deployed to Europe. ''Florida'' was assigned to the British
Grand Fleet
The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.
History
Formed in August 1914 from the ...
and based in
Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern end in June 2009
Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and ...
; in December 1918 she escorted
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
to France for the peace negotiations. ''Utah'' was assigned to convoy escort duty; she was based in Ireland and was tasked with protecting convoys as they approached the European continent.
Retained under the
Washington Naval Treaty
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...
of 1922, both ships were modernized significantly, with
torpedo bulge
The anti-torpedo bulge (also known as an anti-torpedo blister) is a form of defence against naval torpedoes occasionally employed in warship construction in the period between the First and Second World Wars. It involved fitting (or retrofitting ...
s and oil-fired boilers installed and other improvements made, but were demilitarized under terms of the 1930
London Naval Treaty
The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States that was signed on 22 April 1930. Seeking to address is ...
. ''Florida'' was scrapped, ''Utah'' converted into first a radio-controlled target ship, then an
anti-aircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
gunnery trainer. She served in the latter role until sunk by the Japanese during the
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...
on 7 December 1941. Her hull, never raised, remains on the bottom of the harbor as a
war memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war.
Symbolism
Historical usage
It has ...
.
Design
The ''Florida''s were the third of 10 separate classes built between 1906 and 1919, a total of 22 battleships being commissioned. The new
dreadnoughts
The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...
of the American battle line were being designed from
pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, prote ...
experience and observation of foreign designs, as no US dreadnought had yet been commissioned at the time that the ''Florida''s were designed; all were either at some stage of building or in design. American capital ship design was also heavily influenced by war games conducted at the US Navy's
Naval War College
The Naval War College (NWC or NAVWARCOL) is the staff college and "Home of Thought" for the United States Navy at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. The NWC educates and develops leaders, supports defining the future Navy and associat ...
. Captain
William Sims
William Sowden Sims (October 15, 1858 – September 28, 1936) was an admiral in the United States Navy who fought during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to modernize the navy. During World War I, he commanded all United States naval force ...
led a reform movement that assigned warship design to the
General Board
The General Board of the United States Navy was an advisory body of the United States Navy, somewhat akin to a naval general staff and somewhat not. The General Board was established by general order 544, issued on March 13, 1900 by Secretary ...
.
These ships were an improvement over the preceding . Their engine rooms were larger to hold four
Curtis
Curtis or Curtiss is a common English given name and surname of Anglo-Norman origin from the Old French ''curteis'' (Modern French ''courtois'') which derived from the Spanish Cortés (of which Cortez is a variation) and the Portuguese and Gali ...
or
Parsons
Parsons may refer to:
Places
In the United States:
* Parsons, Kansas, a city
* Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community
* Parsons, Tennessee, a city
* Parsons, West Virginia, a town
* Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingto ...
steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
s. Their larger beam gave them greater
metacentric height
The metacentric height (GM) is a measurement of the initial static stability of a floating body. It is calculated as the distance between the centre of gravity of a ship and its metacentre. A larger metacentric height implies greater initial stab ...
, in which the ''Delaware''s were notably deficient, which improved buoyancy and reduced hull stress. The ships mounted new
/51 caliber
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...
guns as
secondary batteries
A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to a disposable or prim ...
in casemates that boasted increased armor protection. The class retained the large and fully enclosed
conning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...
s that were adopted for the preceding ''Delaware''s, as a result of American studies of the
Battle of Tsushima
The Battle of Tsushima (Japanese:対馬沖海戦, Tsushimaoki''-Kaisen'', russian: Цусимское сражение, ''Tsusimskoye srazheniye''), also known as the Battle of Tsushima Strait and the Naval Battle of Sea of Japan (Japanese: 日 ...
in 1905. The design reduced the vulnerability of the command staff. Overall, these ships were much better protected than their British counterparts, although they were modified extensively during the interwar period.
General characteristics
The ''Florida''-class ships were
long at the waterline
A vessel's length at the waterline (abbreviated to L.W.L)Note: originally Load Waterline Length is the length of a ship or boat at the level where it sits in the water (the ''waterline''). The LWL will be shorter than the length of the boat over ...
and
overall
Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers".
Overalls were ...
. They had a beam of and a draft of . They displaced at standard displacement and at
full load
The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...
. This was an increase of approximately over the previous ''Delaware'' class. The ships also had some of their
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
rearranged, including the
lattice mast
Lattice masts, or cage masts, or basket masts, are a type of observation mast common on United States Navy major warships in the early 20th century. They are a type of hyperboloid structure, whose weight-saving design was invented by the Russian ...
s and the funnels.
The ''Florida''-class ships had a crew of 1,001 officers and men. The wider beam increased the vessels' metacentric height, which allowed the ''Florida''s to accommodate their larger medium-caliber guns without any real penalty in topweight.
''Florida'' was fitted experimentally with a larger bridge than was then standard, to house both ship and fire control personnel under armor, while ''Utah'' received a heavily armored fire-control tower atop a standard-sized bridge. The former proved especially successful, to the point that when a larger armored fire-control tower and standard bridge was proposed for the ''Nevada'' class, it was rejected in favor of a roomier bridge like that of ''Florida''.
The two ships were modernized in 1925–27; among the improvements were the addition of
torpedo bulge
The anti-torpedo bulge (also known as an anti-torpedo blister) is a form of defence against naval torpedoes occasionally employed in warship construction in the period between the First and Second World Wars. It involved fitting (or retrofitting ...
s, which were designed to increase resistance to underwater damage—this widened the ships to .
The ships also had their rear lattice masts removed and replaced with a pole mast. A
catapult
A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stored p ...
for launching aircraft was mounted on the number 3 gun turret.
Propulsion
The ships were propelled by four-shaft
Parsons
Parsons may refer to:
Places
In the United States:
* Parsons, Kansas, a city
* Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community
* Parsons, Tennessee, a city
* Parsons, West Virginia, a town
* Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingto ...
steam turbines; steam was provided by 12
Babcock & Wilcox
Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...
coal-fired boilers. The engines were rated at to give a top speed of . On
trials
In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...
, ''Florida'' made on ; ''Utah''s turbines produced only but still propelled the ship at . However, the engine and boiler room arrangements remained the same as in the ''Delaware''s, with the engine room situated between the rear main turrets and steam lines running beneath the
superfiring
Superfiring armament is a naval military building technique in which two (or more) turrets are located in a line, one behind the other, with the second turret located above ("super") the one in front so that the second turret can fire over the ...
rear turret. The ships had a range of at a cruising speed of .
The engine rooms on these ships were lengthened to accommodate the larger Parsons steam turbines, which meant the after boiler room had to be eliminated. Funnel spacing was therefore closer than in the ''Delaware''s. The remaining boiler rooms were widened by ; to do this and maintain adequate underwater and coal bunker protection, the ships were made beamier than the ''Delaware''s. During ''Florida'' and ''Utah''s reconstruction in 1925–1927, their coal-fired boilers were replaced with four
White-Forster oil-fired boilers. The reduction in the number of boilers allowed their twin funnels to be trunked into one single larger funnel.
Armament
Main guns
It was intended originally to arm these ships with eight
/45 caliber guns then in development in superfiring fore-and-aft mountings. As this gun did not go into service until 1914, the arrangement of ten
/45 caliber Mark 5 guns in five twin
gun turret
A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...
s was retained from the ''Delaware'' class.
The gun housings were the Mark 8 type, and they allowed for depression to −5 degrees and elevation to 15 degrees. The guns had a
rate of fire
Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. This can be influenced by several factors, including operator training level, mechanical limitations, ammunition availability, and weapon condition. In m ...
of 2 to 3 rounds per minute. They fired shells, of either
armor-piercing
Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour.
From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many warsh ...
(AP) or Common types, though the Common type was obsolete by 1915 and put out of production. The
propellant charge
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...
was in silk bags, and provided a
muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately to i ...
of . The guns were expected to fire 175 rounds before the barrels would require replacement. The two ships carried 100 shells per gun, or 1,000 rounds in total. At 15 degrees elevation, the guns could hit targets out to approximately
Unfortunately, the turret layout of the ''Delawares'' was also retained, with its respective challenges. Two turrets, Numbers 1 and 2, were mounted fore in a superfiring pair, while the other three were mounted aft of the main superstructure, all on the centerline. The rearmost turret, number 5, was placed on the main deck, facing rearward, the next turret, Number 4, was placed on the main deck facing forward, but could only have fired on either
broadside
Broadside or broadsides may refer to:
Naval
* Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare
Printing and literature
* Broadside (comic ...
, it could not have fired straight forward or aft. The center turret, Number 3, placed in a superfiring position facing rearward, could not fire astern when the turret directly under it had its guns trained forward. This left only the rearmost turret, with its pair of 12-inch guns, to cover the rear quarter of the ship. Also, since the engine room was situated between the superfiring rear turret and the ones behind it, steam lines ran from the boiler rooms amidships around the ammunition magazine for Number 3 turret to the engine room. These lines, it was later found, had the potential to heat the powder in the magazine and degrade its ballistics. This design flaw was also prevalent in several British dreadnoughts but was considered inescapable by naval designers on structural grounds.
Other weapons
C&R proposed secondary guns for these ships, protected by
casemate
A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...
armor. This would have been the only change from the protective scheme carried over from the ''Delaware'' class. However, a new 5-inch/51 caliber gun was adopted instead after concerns about inadequate splinter protection for secondary gun casemates and smoke uptakes led to an increase in armor. Sixteen of these weapons were fitted in individual casemates.
These guns fired a armor-piercing (AP) shell at a muzzle velocity of and a rate of 8 to 9 rounds per minute. The guns could depress to −10 degrees and elevate to 15 degrees. The guns were manually operated, and had a range of train of about 150 degrees in either direction.
''Florida'' and ''Utah'' received two
/23 caliber guns in 1917 for anti-aircraft (AA) defense. This was increased to eight guns between 1926 and 1928. These guns fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of to a maximum range of and ceiling of at an elevation of 75 degrees and a rate of between eight and nine rounds per minute.
The ships were also armed with two submerged torpedo tubes. The tubes were mounted one on each
broadside
Broadside or broadsides may refer to:
Naval
* Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare
Printing and literature
* Broadside (comic ...
. The torpedoes were long and carried a warhead. They had a range of and traveled at a speed of .
Armor
The armor layout was largely the same as in the preceding ''Delaware''-class battleships. The
armored belt
Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal vehicle armor, armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers.
The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from p ...
ranged in thickness from in the more important areas of the ship. Casemated guns mounted in the hull had between of armor plate. After modernization, some of the casemated guns were moved to the superstructure;
these guns were protected with only of armor. The
barbette
Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships.
In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection ...
s that housed the main gun turrets were armored with between of armor; the side portions more vulnerable to shell fire were thicker, while the front and rear sections of the barbette, which were less likely to be hit, received thinner armor to save weight. The gun turrets themselves were armored with of armor. The conning tower was thick. The armored deck was slightly reduced in thickness, from .
Construction
![USS Florida (BB-30) Under Construction](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/USS_Florida_%28BB-30%29_Under_Construction.JPG)
''Florida'', ordered under hull number "Battleship #30", was laid down at the
Brooklyn Navy Yard
The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend ...
in New York on 9 March 1909. She was launched on 12 May 1910, after which fitting out work commenced. She was completed on 15 September 1911, and commissioned into the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. ''Utah'' was ordered under hull number "Battleship #31". She was laid down in Camden, New Jersey, at the
New York Shipbuilding Corporation
The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United ...
, 6 days later on 15 March. Work proceeded faster on ''Utah'' than on her
sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
, and she was launched about four and a half months earlier, on 23 December 1909. Her fitting out lasted until 31 August 1911, when she was commissioned into the Navy.
Service history
USS ''Florida''
![USS Florida (BB-30) - NH 61261](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/USS_Florida_%28BB-30%29_-_NH_61261.jpg)
''Florida'' took part in the
Second battle of Vera Cruz in 1914. She and her sister ''Utah'' were the first two ships on the scene; the two ships landed some 1,000 sailors and Marines under the command of ''Florida''s captain on 21 April. Fighting lasted for 3 days; the contingent from ''Florida'' and ''Utah'' suffered a total of 94 casualties.
After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, ''Florida'' was dispatched to Europe; she departed the United States in December 1917. After arriving in the North Sea, she was assigned to the British
Grand Fleet
The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.
History
Formed in August 1914 from the ...
. The ship, part of the US Navy's
Battleship Division Nine, under the command of Rear Admiral
Hugh Rodman
Admiral Hugh Rodman KCB (6 January 1859 – 7 June 1940) was an officer in the United States Navy who served during the Spanish–American War and World War I, later serving as the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet from 1919 to 1921.
...
, arrived on 7 December and was assigned to the 6th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. Following training exercises with the British fleet, 6th Battle Squadron was tasked with convoy protection duty on the route to Scandinavia. Following the end of the war, in December 1918, the ship escorted President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
on his trip to Europe to participate in the peace negotiations at Versailles. Later in December, ''Florida'' returned to the United States to participate in the Victory Fleet Review in New York harbor.
Post-war, ''Florida'' returned to the US Navy's
Atlantic Fleet; she operated along the east coast of the United States and into Central America. In July 1920, she was assigned the
hull number
Hull number is a serial identification number given to a boat or ship. For the military, a lower number implies an older vessel. For civilian use, the HIN is used to trace the boat's history. The precise usage varies by country and type.
United S ...
"BB-30". In December 1920, she carried the
US Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
,
Bainbridge Colby
Bainbridge Colby (December 22, 1869 – April 11, 1950) was an American politician and attorney who was a co-founder of the United States Progressive Party and Woodrow Wilson's last Secretary of State. Colby was a Republican until he helped co-f ...
, on a diplomatic trip around the Caribbean and South America. ''Florida'' was the oldest American battleship that was retained under the terms of the
Washington Naval Treaty
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...
of 1922. She underwent extensive reconstruction and modernization during the mid-1920s. After emerging from the shipyard, she was assigned as the
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
of the Control Force, US Fleet. The ship conducted a series of training cruises for the remainder of the decade. Under the
London Naval Treaty
The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States that was signed on 22 April 1930. Seeking to address is ...
of 1930, the ship was to be discarded. She was decommissioned in February 1931 and towed to the
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was an important naval shipyard of the United States for almost two centuries.
Philadelphia's original navy yard, begun in 1776 on Front Street and Federal Street in what is now the Pennsport section of the cit ...
, where she was broken up for scrap.
USS ''Utah''
''Utah''s first assignment was with the US Navy's
Atlantic Fleet. During 1913, she took a goodwill voyage to the Mediterranean. ''Utah'' was also involved in the Second Battle of Vera Cruz, alongside her sister ''Florida''. The ship also saw front-line duty in the First World War, although she was not attached to the British Grand Fleet. Starting in September 1918, ''Utah'' was based in
Bantry Bay
Bantry Bay ( ga, Cuan Baoi / Inbhear na mBárc / Bádh Bheanntraighe) is a bay located in County Cork, Ireland. The bay runs approximately from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 3-to-4 km (1.8-to-2.5 mi ...
, Ireland. Here she conducted convoy escort duties on the approach to Europe.
Post-war service saw ''Utah'' again in the Atlantic Fleet; during 1921–22, she was stationed in Europe. ''Utah'' was also retained under the Washington Naval Treaty. In 1924–1925, the ship sailed on a goodwill cruise to South America. Following her return to the United States, she was taken into dry dock for significant reconstruction. After she rejoined the active fleet, she was assigned to the
US Scouting Fleet. Late in 1928, she steamed to the South Atlantic, where she picked up
President-Elect
An ''officer-elect'' is a person who has been elected to a position but has not yet been installed. Notably, a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a ''president-elect'' (e.g. president-elect of the Unit ...
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
, who was returning from an ambassadorial visit to several South American countries.
According to the London Naval Treaty, the ship was to be removed from front-line service. In 1931 she had her main battery guns removed and was converted into a radio-controlled
target ship
A target ship is a vessel — typically an obsolete or captured warship — used as a seaborne target for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing. Targets may be used with the intention of testing effectiveness of specific types of ammuniti ...
. She was redesignated ''AG-16'', and served in this capacity through 1941. In 1935 she was rebuilt again, gaining a single
/75 caliber anti-aircraft gun in a quadruple mount for experimental testing and development of the new type of weapon. She continued her role as a target ship, and in 1941 had several additional anti-aircraft guns installed to increase her capacity to train gunners. Later that year she was transferred to the
US Pacific Fleet
The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor ...
and based in
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
. She was present in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, was hit by two torpedoes,
capsize
Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel fro ...
d, and sank. A few years later, the hull was partially righted and towed closer to
Ford Island
Ford Island ( haw, Poka Ailana) is an islet in the center of Pearl Harbor, Oahu, in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It has been known as Rabbit Island, Marín's Island, and Little Goats Island, and its native Hawaiian name is ''Mokuumeume''. The isl ...
in a failed salvage effort, where the wreck remains today.
Footnotes
References
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Florida class battleship
Battleship classes
World War I battleships of the United States