Thank You to a service man or woman in any branch.
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Posted on 04/05/2003 5:52:23 AM PST by 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
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Today's classic ship, USS Vermont (BB-20)
Connecticut class battleship
Displacement. 16,000
Length. 456'4"
Beam. 76'10"
Draft. 24'6"
Speed. 18 k.
Complement. 880
Armament. 4 12", 8 8", 12 7", 20 3", 12 3-pdrs., 4 1-pdrs, 4 .30-cal. mg., 2 .30-cal. Colt mg.
The USS Vermont (Battleship No. 20) was laid down on 21 May 1904 at Quincy, Mass., by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 31 August 1905; sponsored by Miss Jennie Bell, the daughter of Governor Charles J. Bell of Vermont; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 4 March 1907, Capt. William P. Potter in command.
After her shakedown cruise off the eastern seaboard between Boston and Hampton Roads, Va., Vermont participated in maneuvers with the 1st Division of the Atlantic Fleet and, later, with the 1st and 2d Squadrons. Making a final trial trip between Hampton Roads and Provincetown, Mass., between 30 August and 5 September, Vermont arrived at the Boston Navy Yard on 7 September and underwent repairs until late in November 1907.
Departing Boston on 30 November, she coaled at Bradford, R.I.; received "mine outfits and stores" at Newport, R.I.; and picked up ammunition at Tompkinsville, Staten Island, N.Y.; and arrived at Hampton Roads on 8 December.
There, she made final preparations for the globe-girdling cruise of the United States Atlantic Fleet. Nicknamed the "Great White Fleet" because of the white and spar color of their paint schemes, the 16 pre-dreadnought battleships sailed from Hampton Roads on 16 December, standing out to sea under the gaze of President Theodore Roosevelt who had dispatched the ships, around the globe as a dramatic gesture toward Japan, a growing power on the world stage. Vermont sailed as a unit of the 1st Division, under the overall command of Rear Admiral Robley D. "Fighting Bob" Evans, who was concurrently the Commander in Chief of the Fleet. Over the ensuing months, the battleship visited ports in Chile, Peru, Mexico, California, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, China, and in the Mediterranean, before she returned to Hampton Roads again passing in review before President Roosevelt, on Washington's Birthday, 22 February 1909. During the voyage, Vermont's commanding officer, Capt. Potter, was advanced to flag rank and took command of the division; his place was taken by Capt. (later Admiral) Frank Friday Fletcher.
Modernized after this trip, Vermont received two "cage" masts and other new features. After completion of this work in June 1909, she spent most of the following eight years taking part in fleet operations along the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean. In 1910-11 and again in 1913, the battleship crossed the Atlantic to visit European ports.
In 1914, tension in Mexico beckoned the battleship. Departing Hampton Roads on 15 April, Vermont reached Vera Cruz very early in the morning of 22 April in company with Arkansas (Battleship No. 33), New Hampshire (Battleship No. 26), South Carolina (Battleship No. 26), and New Jersey (Battleship No. 16). Her landing force-a "battalion" of 12 officers and 308 men-went ashore after daybreak that same day as United States forces occupied the port to block an arms shipment to the dictator Victoriano Huerta. In the fighting that ensued, two officers from the staff were awarded Medals of Honor: Lt. Julius C. Townsend, the battalion commander, and Surgeon Cary DeV. Langhornes, the regimental surgeon of the 2d Seaman Regiment. During the fighting, Vermont's force suffered one fatality, a private from her Marine detachment, killed on the 23d. But for a visit to Tampico, Mex., from 21 September to 10 October, Vermont remained in that Mexican port into later October.
Over the next two and one-half years, Vermont maintained her schedule of operations off the eastern seaboard of the United States, ranging from Newport to Guantanamo Bay, before she lay in reserve at Philadelphia from 1 October to 21 November 1916. Vermont subsequently supported the Marine Corps Expeditionary Force in Haiti from 29 November 1916 to 6 February 1917 and then conducted battle practices out of Guantanamo Bay. She ultimately returned to Norfolk on 29 March 1917.
On 4 April 1917, Vermont entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. Two days later, the United States declared war on Germany. The battleship emerged from the yard on 26 August 1917 and sailed for Hampton roads for duty as an engineering training ship in the Chesapeake Bay region. She performed that vital function for almost the entire duration of hostilities, completing the assignment on 4 November 1918, a week before the armistice stilled the guns of World War I.
Her service as a training ship during the conflict had been broken once in the spring of 1918 when she received the body of the late Chilean ambassador to the United States on 28 May 1918; embarked the American Ambassador to Chile, the Honorable J. H. Shea, on 3 June and got underway from Norfolk later that day. The battleship transited the Panama Canal on the 10th; touched at Port Tongoi, Chile, on the 24th; and arrived at Valparaiso on the morning of 27 June.
There, the late ambassador's remains were accompanied ashore by Admiral William B. Caperton and Ambassador Shea. Departing that port on 2 July, Vermont visited Callao, Peru, on the 7th, before retransiting the Panama Canal and returning to her base in the York River.
Vermont entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 5 November and was there converted to a troop transport. She subsequently sailed from Norfolk on 9 January 1919 on the first of four round-trip voyages, returning "Doughboys" from "over there." During her time as a transport, the battleship carried some 5,000 troops back to the United States, completing her last voyage on 20 June 1919.
Prepared at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for inactivation, Vermont departed the east coast on 18 July, sailing from Hampton Roads on that day, bound for the west coast. After transiting the Panama Canal, the battleship visited San Diego, San Pedro, Monterey, and Long Beach, Calif.; Astoria, Ore .; and San Francisco, Calif., before reaching the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, Calif., on 18 September. There, the battleship was decommissioned on 30 June 1920. She was subsequently reclassified as BB-20 on 17 July of that same year.
Vermont remained inactive at Mare Island until her name was struck from the Navy list on 10 November 1923, She was then sold for scrapping on 30 November of the same year in accordance with the Washington Treaty limiting naval armaments.
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Good morning, Tonk! Good morning, Canteen Crew! Good morning, EVERYBODY!
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