USS Virginia (BB-13)

USS Virginia (BB-13)
History
United States
Name	Virginia
Namesake	Commonwealth of Virginia
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding
Laid down	21 May 1902
Launched	6 April 1904
Commissioned	7 May 1906
Decommissioned	13 August 1920
Fate	Sunk as target, 5 September 1923
General characteristics
Class and type	Virginia-class battleship
Displacement	Normal: 14,948 long tons (15,188 t ) Full load : 16,094 long tons (16,352 t)
Length	441 ft 3 in (134 m)
Beam	76 ft 3 in (23 m)
Draft	23 ft 9 in (7 m)
Installed power	24 × Niclausse boilers 19,000  kW )
Propulsion	2 × triple-expansion steam engines 2 × screw propellers
Speed	19 kn (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Complement	812
Armament	4 × 12 in (305 mm)/40 caliber Mark 4 guns 8 × 8 in (203 mm)/45 cal guns 12 × 6 in (152 mm)/50 cal Mark 6 guns 12 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal guns 12 × 3-pounder guns 4 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt : 6–11 in (152–279 mm) Barbettes: 10 in (254 mm) Turrets: 12 in (305 mm) Conning tower: 9 in (229 mm)

USS Virginia (BB-13) was a

For the duration of her career, Virginia served in the Atlantic Fleet, much of it spent conducting peacetime training exercises to maintain fleet readiness. In 1907–1909, she took part in the cruise of the Great White Fleet around the world. She was involved in the American intervention in the Mexican Revolution in 1913–1914, including the occupation of Veracruz. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, she was used first to train gunners for the expanding wartime fleet, and later to escort convoys to Europe. During this period, she served briefly as the flagship of the 1st and 3rd Divisions, Battleship Force. After the war ended in November 1918, she was assigned to the operation to transport American soldiers back from France. Virginia was decommissioned in 1920 and eventually expended as a target ship in 1923 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.

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]

Virginia was 441 feet 3 inches (134.49 m)

Virginia was

In September 1907, Virginia returned to the Norfolk Navy Yard for maintenance, which lasted from 24 September to 24 November.^[3] It was here that she was equipped with some of the first ship-borne short-range radio equipment, intended for use during the upcoming circumnavigation of the globe.,^[8] She thereafter moved to the New York Navy Yard for additional repair work before returning to Hampton Roads on 6 December. Over the following ten days, the ship's crew made preparations for a circumnavigation of the globe by the Great White Fleet.^[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.^[9]

On 17 December, the fleet steamed out of Hampton Roads,^[3] and 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.^[10] 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.^[11]

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 Roosevelt.^[12]

1909–1916

Starting on 26 February, Virginia went into drydock at the Norfolk Navy Yard for repairs after the two-year voyage. The ship required extensive maintenance, which lasted until 26 June. The following fifteen months were spent conducting the normal peacetime training routine, with various maneuvers off the

For the next three years, Virginia adhered to the peacetime training routine with few interruptions. By 1913, conditions in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution began to worsen, and the US Navy began to deploy warships to the country to protect American nationals in the country. Virginia operated there out of Tampico and Veracruz from 15 February 1913 to 15 March before returning to the east coast of the United States for more training. In May, she participated in a ceremony to dedicate the USS Maine National Monument. Virginia was back in Mexican waters by 4 November, when she arrived in Veracruz; she cruised Mexican waters until January 1914, when she departed for Cuba. There, she conducted fleet maneuvers until mid-March, followed by additional training exercises off the Virginia Capes and gunnery training in Chesapeake Bay. The latter included firing on the wreck of San Marcos (formerly the battleship Texas). Most of April was spent at the Boston Navy Yard for repairs.^[3]

In the meantime, the United States had

Upon the United States' entry into the war, the US Navy seized all German merchant ships that had been interned earlier in the conflict. Virginia's crew went aboard several German vessels in Boston, including

In late 1918, Virginia was overhauled at the Boston Navy Yard, after which she was tasked with escorting convoys halfway across the Atlantic, to rendezvous points where other escorts would take them to France. Her first convoy—a troopship convoy with 12,176 soldiers aboard—left New York on 14 October. She escorted another convoy on 12 November, though Germany signed the Armistice that ended the fighting in Europe the day before. With the war over, Virginia was equipped to transport American soldiers back from France; the modifications included extra bunks and mess facilities. On 17 December, she steamed out of Norfolk on her first of five trips to Brest, France.^[3] This trip was made in company with her sister ship Rhode Island, and the two ships arrived in Brest on 30 December. They took on 2,043 soldiers before departing three days later.^[14] The ship's captain, Henry Joseph Ziegemeier, refused to ferry Black units (such as the 369th Infantry Regiment) home to the United States "on the grounds that no blacks had ever traveled on an American battleship."^[15] Her last voyage ended on 4 July 1919 in Boston, and in the course of the five trips, she carried 6,037 soldiers back to the United States.^[3]

Fate

Virginia christened the Commonwealth dry dock at Boston in January 1920 by gliding through a string of flowers draped across its entrance and "cutting the ribbon" for the important new facility,^[16] and then remained there for a year, being reclassified as BB-13 on 17 July 1920 and decommissioned on 13 August. According to the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which mandated significant cuts in naval strength, Virginia was to be discarded; she was initially put up for sale on 12 July 1922, but the Navy instead transferred the ship to the War Department on 6 August 1923. Virginia was instead to be expended as a target ship for bombing tests, along with her sister New Jersey and the battleship Alabama. These tests would be held in cooperation with the US Army Air Service, under the supervision of General Billy Mitchell.^[3][17]

On 5 September, Virginia and New Jersey were anchored off the

Citations

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.
  OCLC 78289471. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
  )
• 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
  .
• Jones, Jerry W. (1998). U.S. Battleship Operations in World War I. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 978-1-55750-411-1
  .
• "Virginia".
  Naval History & Heritage Command
  . Retrieved 6 June 2015.
• Wildenberg, Thomas (2014). Billy Mitchell's War with the Navy: The Army Air Corps and the Challenge to Seapower. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 978-1-61251-332-4
  .