USS Utah (BB-31)
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The USS Utah (BB-31), a battleship of Florida class was the only ship of the US Navy , which according to the US state of Utah was named. Later she served as a training ship for the air defense and got the identification AG-16.
The keel was laid on March 9, 1909 in Camden on the premises of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation . The launch took place on December 23 of the same year, after the baptism made by Miss Mary Alice Spry, the daughter of the governor of Utah, William Spry . The ship entered service on August 31, 1911 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard under Captain William Shepherd Benson .
1911-1917
After her test drive, which took the Utah to Hampton Roads , Santa Rosa Island , Pensacola , Galveston , Kingston , Portland Bight and Guantanamo Bay , the ship was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet in March 1912 . In the spring, the ship and the fleet completed some shooting and torpedo exercises. A short time later, on April 16, the ship returned to the New York Navy Yard for an overhaul phase .
After leaving New York on June 1, Utah briefly visited Hampton Roads and reached Annapolis , Maryland on June 6 . There she took on members of the United States Naval Academy . Off the coast of New England, she conducted a training course with the academy staff before they disembarked in Annapolis on August 24th. Next up was shooting training at the Southern Drill Grounds.
For a little over two years, the battleship stayed off the American east coast and worked through an intensive training program there. The area of operation stretched from the New England coast to Cuban waters. Once during this time it also took Utah to Europe, where it visited Villefranche-sur-Mer in France from November 8 to November 30, 1913 .
For the Utah , the year 1914 began in the New York Navy Yard. Already on January 5th, however, she left the base on a southerly course and after a stop in Hampton Roads reached Cuban waters a short time later. There she began torpedo exercises as well as exercises with small arms. Due to tensions in Mexico , the Utah was relocated off the coast of Mexico in early February. On February 16, she entered Vera Cruz . Until she left for Tampico with a few hundred refugees on April 9, she operated from Vera Cruz.
The Utah stayed in Vera Cruz for almost two months before heading north towards the New York Navy Yard in late June to undergo another overhaul. For the next three years, the battleship operated in the waters off the east coast of the United States all the way down to the Caribbean , carrying out mostly exercises until the United States prepared for a possible entry into the war and put its fleet in readiness.
First World War
After the United States officially entered World War I on April 6, 1917 , the Utah operated in the Chesapeake Bay as a training ship for engineering and gunnery personnel and performed this task until August 30, 1918, when she Took route to the British Isles; with Vice Admiral Henry T. Mayo , Commander of the Atlantic Fleet, on board.
Fear of possible German capital ship attacks on large Allied convoys to bring troops and ammunition across the Atlantic as supplies to Europe prompted the Americans to move a powerful fleet of battleships to Irish waters. Also part of the fleet was the Utah , which reached Brerehaven in Bantry Bay in southwest Ireland on September 10th . There she became the flagship of Rear Adm. Thomas S. Rodgers, commander of the 6th Battleship Division. Until the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, Utah, together with the Nevada and Oklahoma, secured allied convoys against possible attacks by the Imperial Navy to which the otherwise vulnerable transport ships would otherwise have been exposed.
After the end of hostilities, the Utah visited the Isle of Portland in England and was later part of the escort that accompanied the transporter George Washington (Id. No. 3018) to the port of Brest on December 13, 1918 . The then US President Woodrow Wilson was on board the George Washington . The next day, Utah took its home course and reached New York on December 25, 1918.
1919-1931
The Utah remained at anchor in New York Harbor in the North River until January 30, 1919. On January 7th from 2:40 p.m. it was flagged at half-mast due to the death of the former US President Theodore Roosevelt . On January 8th, she fired the gun salute at half-hour intervals throughout the day in honor of the deceased statesman.
The Utah completed a number of training missions and maneuvers by mid-1921, which led them from the coast of New England to the Caribbean . During this time she was given the designation BB-31 on July 17, 1920 as part of the navy-wide hull classification (the previous designation was: "Battleship Number 31" - battleship number 31).
On July 9, 1921, the ship left Boston and soon after - after a short stopover in Lisbon - reached Cherbourg in France. There the Utah became the flagship of the American naval forces in European waters and remained so until October 1922 - when the Pittsburgh took over in this function.
When she returned to the United States on October 21, 1922, the Utah became the flagship of the 6th Battleship Division of the Scouting Fleet and held that position for the next three and a half years.
In 1931/32 the ship was converted into a remote-controllable mobile target ship in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and from 1935 also served as a training ship for gun crews.
Second World War
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The Utah conducted an anti-aircraft drill in Hawaiian waters. In early December 1941, she returned to Pearl Harbor and moored at berth F-11 off Ford Island . On the morning of December 7th, the master and the executive officer (XO) were on shore leave , the officer in charge was Lieutenant Commander Solomon S. Isquith , the chief engineer.
Shortly before eight in the morning, men on the deck of the ship noticed three aircraft flying north from the port entrance. However, the men mistook the planes for American planes in one maneuver - a mistake. At the southern end of Ford Island, the machines went low and began dropping bombs.
The attack on Pearl Harbor lasted almost two hours. The USS Utah was hit by two Japanese torpedoes at 8:01 a.m. and began to list to port. The ship took in more and more water and capsized ten minutes later. 58 seamen and six officers died.
For their service in World War II who received Utah a Service Star . Chief Watertender Peter Tomich remained at his post in the engine room during the attack in Pearl Harbor and was killed in the process. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor .
Memorial
At the urging of the Utah veterans , a memorial for the wreck was set up on Ford Island in 1971 , offering an overview of the parts of the ship lying over the water. On May 5, 1989, Utah was added to the National Register of Historic Places and recognized as a National Historic Landmark .
Web links
"USS Utah" homepage with history at history.navy.mil
Individual evidence
- ^ "USS Utah" Naval History and Heritage Command
- ↑ James P. Delgado: USS Utah (BB-31 and AG-16) Wreck: Registration Form . In: National Register Information System. National Park Service , July 9, 1988, accessed May 16, 2016 (PDF 568 KB)
- ↑ USS UTAH Wreck in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 8, 2017.
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Hawaii. National Park Service , accessed July 22, 2019.
Coordinates: 21 ° 22 ′ 7.5 ″ N , 157 ° 57 ′ 44.4 ″ W.