USS Georgia (BB-15)
![]() USS Georgia running speed trials on 13 June 1906
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History | |
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Name | Georgia |
Namesake | State of Georgia |
Builder | Bath Iron Works |
Laid down | 31 August 1901 |
Launched | 11 October 1904 |
Commissioned | 24 September 1906 |
Decommissioned | 15 July 1920 |
Stricken | 10 November 1923 |
Fate | Sold for scrap |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Virginia-class battleship |
Displacement |
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Length | 441 ft 3 in (134 m) |
Beam | 76 ft 3 in (23 m) |
Draft | 23 ft 9 in (7 m) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 19 kn (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
Complement | 812 |
Armament |
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Armor |
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USS Georgia (BB-15) was a United States Navy Virginia-class battleship, the third of five ships of the class. She was built by the Bath Iron Works in Maine, with her keel laid in August 1901 and her launching in October 1904. The completed battleship was commissioned into the fleet in September 1906. The ship was armed with an offensive battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and eight 8-inch (203 mm) guns, and she was capable of a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).
Georgia spent the majority of her career in the Atlantic Fleet. In 1907, she took part in the Jamestown Exposition and suffered an explosion in her aft 8-inch gun turret that killed or wounded 21 men. At the end of the year, she joined the Great White Fleet on its circumnavigation of the globe, which ended in early 1909. Peacetime training followed for the next five years, and in 1914 she cruised in Mexican waters to protect American interests during the Mexican Revolution. In early 1916, the ship was temporarily decommissioned.
When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the ship was tasked with training naval recruits for the expanding wartime fleet. Starting in September 1918, she was used as a convoy escort. Her only casualties during the war were due to disease, the result of poor conditions and severe overcrowding aboard the ship. Georgia was used to transport American soldiers back from France in 1918–1919, and the following year she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet, where she served as the flagship of the 2nd Division, 1st Squadron. The Washington Naval Treaty, signed in 1922, cut short the ship's career, as it mandated severe draw-downs in naval strength. Georgia was accordingly sold for scrap in November 1923.
Design
Design work on the Virginia class began in 1899, after the United States' victory in the Spanish–American War, which had demonstrated the need for sea-going battleships suitable for operations abroad, finally resolving the debate between proponents of that type and those who favored low-freeboard types useful for coastal defense. The designers included a superposed arrangement of the main and some of the secondary guns, which proved to be a significant disappointment in service, as firing either set of guns interfered with the others, slowing the rate of fire.[1]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/77/Virginia-class_battleship_plan_and_profile.jpg/220px-Virginia-class_battleship_plan_and_profile.jpg)
Georgia was 441 feet 3 inches (134.49 m)
The ship was armed with a
Georgia's main
Service history
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/USS_Georgia_LOC_det.4a15469.jpg/220px-USS_Georgia_LOC_det.4a15469.jpg)
Early career and the Great White Fleet
Georgia was
On 10 June, the ship took part in a
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Georgia_%28BB15%29._Port_side%2C_underway%2C_06-19-1909_-_NARA_-_513014.tif/lossy-page1-220px-Georgia_%28BB15%29._Port_side%2C_underway%2C_06-19-1909_-_NARA_-_513014.tif.jpg)
Georgia joined the Great White Fleet on 16 December 1907, when they departed Hampton Roads to begin their circumnavigation of the globe.[3] The cruise of the Great White Fleet was conceived as a way to demonstrate American military power, particularly to Japan. Tensions had begun to rise between the United States and Japan after the latter's victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, particularly over racist opposition to Japanese immigration to the United States. The press in both countries began to call for war, and Roosevelt hoped to use the demonstration of naval might to deter Japanese aggression.[5] The fleet cruised south to the Caribbean and then to South America, making stops in Port of Spain, Rio de Janeiro, Punta Arenas, and Valparaíso, among other cities. After arriving in Mexico in March 1908, the fleet spent three weeks conducting gunnery practice.[6] The fleet then resumed its voyage up the Pacific coast of the Americas, stopping in San Francisco and Seattle before crossing the Pacific to Australia, stopping in Hawaii on the way. Stops in the South Pacific included Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland.[7]
After leaving Australia, the fleet turned north for the Philippines, stopping in Manila, before continuing on to Japan where a welcoming ceremony was held in Yokohama. Three weeks of exercises followed in Subic Bay in the Philippines in November. The ships passed Singapore on 6 December and entered the Indian Ocean; they coaled in Colombo before proceeding to the Suez Canal and coaling again at Port Said, Egypt. The fleet called in several Mediterranean ports before stopping in Gibraltar, where an international fleet of British, Russian, French, and Dutch warships greeted the Americans. The ships then crossed the Atlantic to return to Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909, having traveled 46,729 nautical miles (86,542 km; 53,775 mi). There, they conducted a naval review for Theodore Roosevelt.[8]
1910–1923
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/USS_Georgia_coaling.tiff/lossy-page1-170px-USS_Georgia_coaling.tiff.jpg)
Over the course of the following year and a half, Georgia conducted a peacetime routine of training maneuvers and gunnery drills. On 2 November 1910, she took part in a naval review for President
The ship then went into drydock for an overhaul, before returning to Cuban waters for maneuvers with the fleet. She arrived there on 25 February 1915. The rest of the year was spent with training exercises with the Atlantic Fleet. Another overhaul, at the Boston Navy Yard, from 20 January to January 1916. On 27 January, Georgia was decommissioned temporarily. The same day as the United States' declaration of war against Germany on 6 April 1917, the ship was reactivated for service during World War I. She was assigned to the 3rd Division, Battleship Force, based in the York River, Virginia. She spent most of the war training gunners for the rapidly expanding wartime Navy and conducting tactical training exercises.[3] During this period, the ship frequently had more than a thousand men aboard the ship, despite the fact that she had sleeping accommodations for only 750. The ship's commander at the time, Captain Sumner Kittelle, raised concerns about the over-crowded conditions aboard the ship.[9]
From September 1918 to the end of the conflict, Georgia was assigned to the Cruiser Force Atlantic as a convoy escort.[3] The ship's first operation was with troop ship convoy 67, which departed New York on 23 September; the rest of the escort consisted of the armored cruisers North Carolina and Montana and the destroyer Rathburne. Georgia had to take on 525 long tons (533 t) of coal in addition to her normal stocks, which significantly degraded her seakeeping characteristics. The ship accordingly had to be battened down to reduce flooding from heavy seas, which had the effect of hastening the spread of disease. During the cruise, the crew suffered from 120 cases of influenza and 14 cases of pneumonia; 7 men died from disease. Even with the additional coal, the ship did not have sufficient fuel to reach the hand off point and she had to break off from the convoy to return to port.[10] Germany signed an Armistice with the Allied powers, ending the war on 11 November. On 10 December, the ship was equipped to serve as a transport to carry American soldiers back from France. This duty saw the ship transferred to the Cruiser and Transport Force. She made five trips between December 1918 and June 1919, carrying almost 6,000 soldiers in total.[3] The first trip, made in company with the battleship Kansas, arrived in Brest, France on 22 December 1918.[11]
Georgia was transferred to the
Footnotes
Notes
Citations
- ^ Friedman, pp. 42–43.
- ^ a b c d Campbell, p. 143.
- ^ a b c d e f g h DANFS Georgia.
- ^ Final Report of the Jamestown Ter-Centennial, pp. 60–61.
- ^ Hendrix, pp. XIII, XIV.
- ^ Albertson, pp. 41–46.
- ^ Albertson, pp. 47–56.
- ^ Albertson, pp. 57–66.
- ^ Jones, pp. 112–113.
- ^ Jones, p. 118.
- ^ Jones, p. 122.
- ^ Georgia Tech NROTC.
References
- Albertson, Mark (2007). U.S.S. Connecticut: Constitution State Battleship. Mustang: ISBN 978-1-59886-739-8.
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1979). "United States of America". In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 114–169. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
- "Final Report of the Jamestown Ter-Centennial". Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1909. )
- Friedman, Norman (1985). U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis: ISBN 978-0-87021-715-9.
- Hendrix, Henry (2009). Theodore Roosevelt's Naval Diplomacy: The U.S. Navy and the Birth of the American Century. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-61251-831-2.
- "History of the NROTC Unit at Georgia Tech". nrotc.gatech.edu. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
- Jones, Jerry W. (1998). U.S. Battleship Operations in World War I. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-411-1.
- "Georgia (BB-15)". Naval History & Heritage Command. 3 April 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
Further reading
- Alden, John D. (1989). American Steel Navy: A Photographic History of the U.S. Navy from the Introduction of the Steel Hull in 1883 to the Cruise of the Great White Fleet. Annapolis: ISBN 978-0-87021-248-2.
- Reilly, John C.; Scheina, Robert L. (1980). American Battleships 1886–1923: Predreadnought Design and Construction. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-524-7.
External links
Media related to USS Georgia (BB-15) at Wikimedia Commons