USS New Hampshire (BB-25)
The USS New Hampshire off New York City
Career (US)
Laid down: 1
May 1905
Launched: 30
June 1906
Commissioned: 19
March 1908
Decommissioned: 21
May 1921
Fate: sold for
scrap
General characteristics [1]
Displacement: 16,000
tons (14,500 tonnes)
Length: 456.3
ft (139.1 m)
Beam: 76.9 ft
(23.4 m)
Draft: 24.5 ft
(7.5 m)
Speed: 18 kn (21
mph; 33 km/h)
Complement: 850
officers and men
Armament:
4 × 12 in (300
mm)/45 cal Mark 5 guns
8 × 8 in (200
mm)/45 cal guns
12 × 7 in (180
mm)/45 cal guns
20 × 3 in (76
mm)/50 cal guns
2 × 1 pounders
(37 mm, 1.47 in)
4 × 21 in (530
mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:
Belt: 6–11 in
(152–279 mm)
Barbettes: 6–10
in (152–254 mm)
Turret Main:
8–12 in (203–305 mm)
Turret
secondary: 7 in (178 mm)
Conning tower:
9 in (229 mm)
Firing a broadside circa 1918
The second United States Navy New Hampshire (BB-25) was a
Connecticut-class battleship. New Hampshire was the last American
pre-dreadnought battleship, though she was commissioned two years after HMS
Dreadnought.
She was laid down on 1 May 1905 by New York Shipbuilding
Corporation, Camden, New Jersey; launched on 30 June 1906; sponsored by Mrs.
John A.(Hazel E. McLane) Clark, daughter of Governor John McLane of New
Hampshire; and commissioned on 19 March 1908, Captain Cameron M. Winslow in
command.
Contents
Pre-World War I
After fitting out at New York, New Hampshire carried a
Marine Expeditionary Regiment to Colón, Panama on 20–26 June 1908, then made
ceremonial visits to Quebec, Portsmouth, New York, and Bridgeport. Overhaul at
New York and Caribbean exercises were followed by participation in the Naval
Review by President Theodore Roosevelt in Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909,
welcoming home the "Great White Fleet".
Through the next 18 months, she exercised along the east
coast and in the Caribbean, then departed Hampton Roads on 1 November 1910 with
Battleship Division 2 (BatDiv 2) for Cherbourg, France and Weymouth, England.
Leaving England on 30 December, she returned to the Caribbean until arriving in
Norfolk, Virginia on 10 March 1911 to prepare for a second European cruise
which took her to Scandinavian, Russian, and German ports. The squadron
returned to New England waters on 13 July.
New Hampshire trained United States Naval Academy
midshipmen off New England in the next two summers, and patrolled off
strife-torn Hispaniola in December 1912. From 14 June-29 December 1913, she
similarly protected United States' interests along the Mexican coast, to which
she returned on 15 April 1914 to support the occupation of Veracruz. New
Hampshire sailed north on 21 June, was overhauled at Norfolk, and exercised
along the east coast and in the Caribbean until returning to Veracruz in August
1915.
World War I
Arriving Norfolk on 30 September 1915, New Hampshire
operated in northern waters until 2 December 1916, when she sailed for Santo
Domingo, where her commanding officer took part in the government of the
revolt-torn country. She returned to Norfolk in February 1917 for overhaul,
where she lay when the United States entered World War I. For the next 18
months, she trained gunners and engineers in northern coastal waters, and on 15
September began the first of two convoy escort missions, guarding transports
from New York to a rendezvous point off the French coast. On 24 December 1918,
she sailed on the first of four voyages bringing veterans home from France to
east coast ports. This duty completed on 22 June 1919, she was overhauled at
Philadelphia, then on 5 June 1920 sailed with Academy midshipmen embarked for a
cruise through the Panama Canal to Hawaii and west coast ports. She returned to
Philadelphia on 11 September.
Inter-war period
Battalion, 604th Engineers
