USS Massachusetts (BB-2)

Coordinates: 30°17′49″N 87°18′41″W / 30.29694°N 87.31139°W / 30.29694; -87.31139
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Massachusetts in 1901
History
United States
NameMassachusetts
NamesakeMassachusetts
Ordered30 June 1890
BuilderWilliam Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia
Laid down25 June 1891
Launched10 June 1893
Commissioned10 June 1896
Decommissioned8 January 1906
Recommissioned2 May 1910
Decommissioned23 May 1914
Recommissioned9 June 1917
RenamedCoast Battleship Number 2 29 March 1919
Decommissioned31 March 1919
Stricken22 November 1920
FateScuttled, 6 January 1921
General characteristics [1][2][3]
Class and typeIndiana-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement10,288 long tons (10,453 t) standard
Length350 ft 11 in (107.0 m)
Beam69 ft 3 in (21.1 m)
Draft27 ft (8.2 m)
Installed power
Propulsion
  • 2 ×
    triple-expansion steam engines
  • 2 × shafts
Speed15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) (design)
Range4,900 nmi (9,100 km; 5,600 mi)[a]
Complement473 officers and men
Armament
Armor
  • Belt: 18–8.5 in (457–216 mm)
  • 13" turrets: 15 in (381 mm)
  • Hull: 5 in (127 mm)
  • 8" turrets: 6 in (152 mm)
  • Conning Tower: 10 in (254 mm)
  • Deck: 3 in (76 mm)
USS Massachusetts (BB-2)
USS Massachusetts (BB-2) is located in Florida
USS Massachusetts (BB-2)
LocationEscambia County, Florida, US
Nearest cityPensacola, Florida, US
Coordinates30°17′49″N 87°18′41″W / 30.29694°N 87.31139°W / 30.29694; -87.31139
Areac. 1 acre (0.40 ha)
NRHP reference No.01000528[4]
FUAP No.4
Added to NRHP31 May 2001

USS Massachusetts was an Indiana-class, pre-dreadnought battleship and the second United States Navy ship comparable to foreign battleships of its time.[5] Authorized in 1890, and commissioned six years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship class also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defense and as a result, her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean.

Massachusetts served in the

Flying Squadron and took part in the blockades of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba. She missed the decisive Battle of Santiago de Cuba after steaming to Guantánamo Bay the night before to resupply coal. After the war she served with the North Atlantic Squadron, performing training maneuvers and gunnery practice. During this period she suffered an explosion in an 8-inch (203 mm) gun turret, killing nine, and ran aground
twice, requiring several months of repair both times. She was decommissioned in 1906, for modernization.

Although considered obsolete in 1910, the battleship was recommissioned and used for annual cruises for

USS Massachusetts (BB-54) (laid down April 1921). In 1921, she was scuttled in shallow water in the Gulf of Mexico, off Pensacola, Florida, and used as a target for experimental artillery. The wreck was never scrapped, and in 1956, it was declared the property of the State of Florida. Since 1993, the wreck has been a Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve and it is included in the National Register of Historic Places. It serves as an artificial reef and diving
spot.

Design

Massachusetts was constructed from a modified version of a design drawn up by a policy board in 1889 for a short-range battleship. The original design was part of an ambitious naval construction plan to build 33 battleships and 167 smaller ships. The United States Congress saw the plan as an attempt to end the US policy of isolationism and did not approve it, but a year later approved funding for three coast defense battleships, which would become Massachusetts and her sister ships Indiana and Oregon.[6] The ships were limited to coastal defense due to their moderate endurance, relatively small displacement and low freeboard which limited seagoing capability.[7] The ships proved to be disappointments in service, as they were badly overweight upon completion, their low freeboard hampered operations at sea, and they handled poorly.[8] Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships describes her design as "attempting too much on a very limited displacement."[9] They were nevertheless the first modern battleships for the American fleet.[8][9]

Plan and profile illustration of Oregon, one of the Indiana-class battleships

Massachusetts was 351 feet 2 inches (107.04 m)

cage mast in 1910–1911. She had a crew of 32 officers and 441 enlisted men, which increased to a total of 586–636 officers and enlisted.[9][10]

The ship was armed with a

18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes in above-water mounts, though the number is unclear. According to Conway's, she was fitted with six tubes, though the naval historian Norman Friedman states she was ordered with seven but completed with five.[9][11]

Massachusetts's main

armored belt was 18 in (457 mm) thick over the magazines and the machinery spaces and was reduced to 4 in (102 mm) at the bow and stern. The main battery gun turrets had 17-inch (432 mm) thick sides, and the supporting barbettes had the same thickness of armor plate on their exposed sides. The 8 in turrets had 6 in of armor plating and the casemate battery had 5 in (127 mm). The conning tower had 10 in (254 mm) thick sides.[2]

Service history

Construction and early career

Construction of the ships was authorized on 30 June 1890, and the contract for Massachusetts—not including guns and armor—was awarded to

Secretary of the Navy Hilary A. Herbert, and Commander George Dewey.[15] Her preliminary sea trial did not take place until March 1896, because of the delays in armor and gun deliveries. At this point Massachusetts was almost complete,[14] and her official trial was held a month later.[16]

Massachusetts was commissioned on 10 June 1896, with

Spanish–American War

Painting of USS Massachusetts

After the outbreak of the

Cienfuegos, Cuba, to look for Cervera.[18] Schley arrived off Cienfuegos, on 22 May, and took several days to establish that Cervera's ships were not in the harbor. The squadron then proceeded to Santiago de Cuba, the only other port on the southern coast of Cuba that was large enough for the Spanish ships,[19] arriving after several delays on 29 May.[20] On arrival, the Spanish cruiser Cristóbal Colón, was visible from outside the harbor entrance, confirming that the Spanish fleet was in the harbor.[21] Schley blockaded the harbor and informed Sampson, who arrived with his own squadron on 1 June,[22] and assumed overall command.[23]

During the next month Massachusetts took part in the blockade of Santiago de Cuba, occasionally bombarding the harbor forts.[17] On the night of 2–3 July, she and the two cruisers New Orleans and Newark, left the blockade to load coal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.[24] This caused her to miss the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, on 3 July, in which the Spanish fleet attempted to break through the blockade and was completely destroyed.[25] The next day the battleship came back to Santiago de Cuba, where she and Texas fired at the disarmed Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes, which was being scuttled by the Spanish, in an attempt to block the harbor entrance channel.[26] Massachusetts was then sent to Puerto Rico, to support the American occupation until she steamed home to New York, on 1 August, arriving on 20 August.[17]

Post Spanish–American War

After a quick overhaul in

drydock, Massachusetts was attempting to leave New York Harbor on 10 December 1898, when she struck Diamond Reef, flooding five of her forward compartments. She was forced to return to the navy yard, where she was placed in drydock again for repairs which took around three months.[27][28] For a year Massachusetts served with the North Atlantic Squadron, visiting various cities on the Atlantic coast.[17] In May 1900, she and Indiana were placed in reserve as the navy had an acute officer shortage and needed to put the new Kearsarge-class and Illinois-class battleships into commission.[29] The battleships were reactivated the following month as an experiment in how quickly this could be achieved,[30] and Massachusetts returned to service with the North Atlantic Squadron.[17]

In March 1901, the battleship grounded again, this time in the harbor of

Babcock & Wilcox boilers, counterweights to balance her main turrets, a lattice mast, and electric traversing mechanisms for her turrets.[37]

On 2 May 1910, Massachusetts was placed in reduced commission so she could be used for the annual

Atlantic Reserve Fleet when it was formed in 1912.[39] After a quick trip to New York for a Presidential Fleet Review in October 1912, the warship returned to Philadelphia and stayed there until she was decommissioned on 23 May 1914.[17]

World War I and fate

Pensacola
, Florida
The wreck of Massachusetts off Pensacola, on 8 April 2002

After the United States entered World War I, Massachusetts was recommissioned for the final time, on 9 June 1917. She was used by

Massachusetts (BB-54).[17]

Massachusetts was struck from the

railway artillery. On 20 February 1925, the Department of War returned her wreck to the US Navy, which offered her for scrap, but no acceptable bids were received.[17]

Eventually Massachusetts was declared the property of the State of Florida, by the Supreme Court of Florida. On 10 June 1993—the centennial anniversary of her launching—the site became the fourth Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve. In 2001, the wreck also was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and it still serves as an artificial reef and diving spot.[41]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Experimental data for Indiana and Massachusetts was lumped together and the rounded average calculated. See Bryan 1901.
  2. DANFS
    says six tubes, while Friedman states the contract called for seven tubes, but Massachusetts was completed with five.

Citations

References

Print references

The New York Times

Other

External links