SS Arizona
The Arizona was a record breaking British passenger liner, the first of the Guion Line's Atlantic Greyhounds on the Liverpool-Queenstown-New York route. One nautical historian called Arizona "a souped up transatlantic hot rod." Entering service in 1879, she was the prototype for Atlantic express liners until the Inman Line introduced its twin screw City of New York in 1889. The Arizona type liner is considered as unsuccessful because too much was sacrificed for speed. Laid up in 1894 when Guion stopped sailings, Arizona was sold four years and employed in the Pacific until she was acquired by the US Government for service in the Spanish–American War; as the U. S. Navy's Hancock she continued trooping through W. W. I. and was scrapped in 1926. Starting in 1866, the Guion Line was successful in the Liverpool-Queenstown-New York steerage trade. In 1875, Guion began commissioning express liners to compete for first class business, but its first two ships were total failures. William Pearce, the controlling partner of the John Elder shipyard, was convinced that a crack steamer that carried only passengers and light freight could be profitable because she would attract more passengers and spend less time in port.
When Cunard rejected his proposal, Pearce offered his idea to the Guion line at a bargain price of £140,000 at a time when express liners cost £200,000. He agreed to share the initial costs. Stephen Guion, managing director of the line owned the new vessel; as completed, Arizona appeared similar to White Star's Germanic, the current holder of the Blue Riband, but with greater power. Her engines produced 6,400 indicated horsepower, 1,400 more than Germanic. Arizona's six double-ended boilers and 39 furnaces consumed 135 tons of coal per day more than her White Star rival, she had less room for cargo and steerage passengers. Because of her high power, Arizona was an uncomfortable ship. However, publicity at the time tried to hide this by describing the luxury of her interior, her saloon "contained six long tables, with revolving chairs. A large dome-like aperture, with a skylight at the top, rose from the centre of the saloon, was crossed by beams, supported by small pillars of polished wood, upon which were placed plants and flowers.
The saloon extended the entire width of the vessel, contained a fine piano at the forward end, a library at the after end. The state-rooms were elegantly upholstered, contained every facility for comfort. Pneumatic bells connected all the state-rooms with the steward's pantry, situated just aft the main saloon. A richly-furnished ladies' boudoir was on the promenade deck, just aft of the forward wheel-house." Shortly after her 1879 maiden voyage, Arizona won the eastbound record for a Sandy Hook-Queenstown run of seven days, eight hours, 11 minutes. However, despite her greater power and coal consumption, she failed to take the westbound "Blue Riband" record from Germanic. On 7 November 1879, Arizona suffered a collision with an iceberg en route to Liverpool. Stephen Guion was on board with two of his nieces. While the damage was severe, she remained afloat and was able to proceed to St. John's where she underwent temporary repairs before returning to Scotland. Guion advertised this near disaster as proof of Arizona's strength.
While uncomfortable, Arizona proved popular with American passengers because the Guion Line was majority owned by Americans. Stephen Guion died in December 1885, the line was reorganized as a public stock corporation to settle the estate; the company did not invest in new units and by 1894 when Guion stopped sailings and her running mate, Alaska of 1881 were hopelessly outpaced by the latest twin-screw liners from Cunard, White Star and Inman. It was on the Arizona that Oscar Wilde and his friend Lillie Langtry first sailed to America in 1881, he boarded the ship at Liverpool on December 26, 1881 as passenger no. 114. The ship arrived at New York on January 2, 1882, but passengers did not disembark until the following morning. Arizona was laid up in Scotland until 1897 when she was sold to a British flagged San Francisco-China service, she was extensively rebuilt and her two funnels were replaced with one enormous funnel that dominated her profile. After a few Pacific voyages, Arizona was sold to the War Department and used designated U.
S. Army Transport Arizona. In 1898 USAT Arizona was refitted and new triple expansion steam engines replaced her old compound engines in preparation for the San Francisco to China route. On 16 July 1898 Arizona was purchased from the Northern Pacific Railway Company by the U. S. Army for $600,000. USAT Arizona transported the following United States Volunteers and Regular Army units from Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii to Manila, Philippines as part of the 5th Philippine Expeditionary Force in the Spanish–American War: 1st Colorado Infantry Regiment, USV. 1st Nebraska Infantry Regiment, USV. 10th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, USV. 18th U. S. Infantry, Companies I, K, L, M. On January 24, 1902 the ship transported part it the 22nd Infantry home to the States from the Philippine-American War and Moro Rebellion, arriving in San Francisco on February 25, it sailed with the USAT Rosecrans. In 1902, she was acquired by the US Navy for use as a receiving ship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and commissioned as USS Hancock.
She served as a troopship in the First World War and continued in various duties until she was sold for scrapping in May 1926. More Ships Built in Govan Ships Monthly, Govan Shipyard, Ian Johnston Shipping Times The Ships List Army Ships -- The Ghost Fleet: Army Quartermaster Corps/Army Transport Service (Photo of U
USS Arizona (1858)
The first USS Arizona was an iron-hulled, side-wheel merchant steamship. Seized by the Confederate States of America in 1862 during the American Civil War, she was captured the same year by the United States Navy. USS Arizona was laid down in 1858 at the shipyard of Harlan and Hollingsworth in Wilmington and completed in 1859, she was intended to carry passengers and freight on a route from New Orleans to the Brazos River for the Southern Steamship Company but made other voyages along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the United States. On 15 January 1862, Confederate Maj. Gen. Mansfield Lovell seized SS Arizona at New Orleans, her U. S. enrollment was surrendered and replaced by a Confederate Register on 17 March 1862. Arizona was converted along with several of the faster steamers seized at the same time to run the blockade to Cuba. On her first voyage to Havana, Arizona took a provisional British registry from the British consul and was renamed Caroline, she served as a blockade runner for the Confederate States of America operating from New Orleans and Mobile to Havana.
On the morning of 28 October 1862, the side-wheeler was steaming from Havana to Mobile with a cargo of munitions when she was sighted by USS Montgomery. The Union gunboat set out in pursuit of the stranger, beginning a six-hour chase; when Montgomery pulled within range of Caroline, she opened fire with her 30-pounder Parrott rifle and expended 17 shells before two hits brought the quarry to. Two boats from the blockader rowed out to Caroline and one returned with her master, a man named Forbes, who claimed to have been bound for the neutral port of Matamoros, not Confederate Mobile. "I do not take you for running the blockade," the flag officer, with tongue in cheek, replied, "but for your damned poor navigation. Any man bound for Matamoros from Havana and coming within twelve miles of Mobile light has no business to have a steamer." Rear Admiral David Farragut sent the prize to Philadelphia where she was condemned by admiralty court. The Federal Government purchased her on 23 January 1863; the Navy restored her original name and placed her in commission on 9 March 1863, Lieutenant Daniel P. Upton in command.
Nine days the steamer stood down the Delaware River and headed for the Gulf of Mexico. En route south, she chased and overtook the cotton-laden sloop Aurelia off Mosquito Inlet, Florida, on 23 March, captured her and sent her to Port Royal. Shortly before Arizona joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron at New Orleans, Farragut had led a naval force up the Mississippi past Port Hudson to close off the flow of supplies down the Red River and across the Mississippi to Confederate armies fighting in the East, his warships met a fierce cannonade as they attempted to pass Port Hudson, only the flagship USS Hartford and her consort USS Albatross made it safely through to the strategic stretch of the river between Port Hudson and Vicksburg. Arizona played an important role in strengthening Farragut's drastically reduced force and opening up communications between its commander and the rest of his squadron. From New Orleans she proceeded to Berwick Bay to join a naval force commanded by Commander Augustus P. Cook which, in cooperation with troops commanded by Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, was operating in the swampy backwaters of the Louisiana lowlands west of the Mississippi.
On 14 April, while carrying army units, she, USS Estrella, USS Calhoun attacked CSS Queen of the West on Grand Gulf, a wide and still stretch of the Atchafalaya River. A shell from USS Calhoun blew up the Queen of the West's boiler and ignited the cotton lining her hull; the burning cotton-clad drifted downstream for several hours before exploding. The three Union steamers captured 90 members of the doomed vessel's crew who had jumped overboard to escape scalding. Six days USS Clifton joined the same force and, working with four companies of Union infantry, took Fort Burton, a Southern battery consisting of two old siege guns emplaced at Butte La Rose, Louisiana; this victory opened a passage for Union ships - through Atchafalaya Bay and the River of the same name - connecting the gulf with the Red and Mississippi Rivers. Thus, Farragut could bypass Port Hudson with supplies and ships. After this path was clear, Arizona entered the Red River and descended it to its mouth where she met Farragut's flagship, Hartford.
On 3 May, she was part of a three-ship reconnaissance force that ascended the Red River until it encountered heavy fire from two large Confederate steamers, Grand Duke and Mary T. which were supported by Southern shore batteries and snipers. Since the narrow channel prevented the Union ships from maneuvering to bring their broadsides to bear on their attackers, they were compelled to retire; as they descended, the Northern vessels met a large force led by Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter who ordered Arizona and Estrella to join him in a much more powerful drive up the Red River. He allowed the third ship, to return to the Mississippi to report to Farragut; the next morning, Porter's force arrived at Fort DeRussy - an uncompleted stronghold the South had been building on the banks of the river - and found it abandoned. After destroying the fortifications, Porter continued on up stream to Alexandria which surrendered without resistance. Before Porter left the river, Arizona took part in a reconnaissance of the Black River, a tributary of the Red.
On 10 May, she joined in an attack on Fort Beauregard at Harrisonburg, Louisiana, on the Ouachita River. Following her return to the Mississippi, Arizona supported operations against Port Hudson which fell on 9 July — five days after the surrender of Vicksburg — removing the last Southern hold on the river and cutting the Confedera
SS Grand Canyon State (T-ACS-3)
SS Grand Canyon State is a crane ship in ready reserve for the United States Navy. The ship was named for the state of Arizona, known as the Grand Canyon State. Grand Canyon State was laid down on 20 March 1964, as the combination breakbulk-container ship SS President Polk, ON 500484, IMO 6510899, a Maritime Administration type hull under MARAD contract. Built by National Steel and Shipbuilding, San Diego, CA, hull no. 338, she was launched on 23 January 1965, delivered to MARAD on 4 November 1965, for service with American President Lines. She was converted to a MARAD type container ship, in 1973, continued to be operated by APL until delivered to the Maritime Administration in 1982 for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet. In 1985-1987 she was converted to a type Crane Ship by Dillingham Corporation, San Francisco, CA, she was placed in service as SS Grand Canyon State 27 October 1987, assigned to the Military Sealift Command Ready Reserve Force. The Grand Canyon State is assigned to the Maritime Propositioning Squadron Three and is maintained in a 5-day readiness status.
Polmar, Norman. The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U. S. Fleet. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1591146852. SS Grand Canyon State This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U. S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here. Military Sealift Command Ship Inventory
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the battleship was the most powerful type of warship, a fleet of battleships was considered vital for any nation that desired to maintain command of the sea; the term battleship came into formal use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship, now referred to by historians as pre-dreadnought battleships. In 1906, the commissioning of HMS Dreadnought into the United Kingdom's Royal Navy heralded a revolution in battleship design. Subsequent battleship designs, influenced by HMS Dreadnought, were referred to as "dreadnoughts", though the term became obsolete as they became the only type of battleship in common use. Battleships were a symbol of naval dominance and national might, for decades the battleship was a major factor in both diplomacy and military strategy. A global arms race in battleship construction began in Europe in the 1890s and culminated at the decisive Battle of Tsushima in 1905, the outcome of which influenced the design of HMS Dreadnought.
The launch of Dreadnought in 1906 commenced a new naval arms race. Three major fleet actions between steel battleships took place: the decisive battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, the inconclusive Battle of Jutland during the First World War. Jutland was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the war, it was the last major battle fought by battleships in world history; the Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s limited the number of battleships, though technical innovation in battleship design continued. Both the Allied and Axis powers built battleships during World War II, though the increasing importance of the aircraft carrier meant that the battleship played a less important role than had been expected; the value of the battleship has been questioned during their heyday. There were few of the decisive fleet battles that battleship proponents expected, used to justify the vast resources spent on building battlefleets. In spite of their huge firepower and protection, battleships were vulnerable to much smaller and inexpensive weapons: the torpedo and the naval mine, aircraft and the guided missile.
The growing range of naval engagements led to the aircraft carrier replacing the battleship as the leading capital ship during World War II, with the last battleship to be launched being HMS Vanguard in 1944. Four battleships were retained by the United States Navy until the end of the Cold War for fire support purposes and were last used in combat during the Gulf War in 1991; the last battleships were stricken from the U. S. Naval Vessel Register in the 2000s. A ship of the line was the dominant warship of its age, it was a large, unarmored wooden sailing ship which mounted a battery of up to 120 smoothbore guns and carronades. The ship of the line developed over centuries and, apart from growing in size, it changed little between the adoption of line of battle tactics in the early 17th century and the end of the sailing battleship's heyday in the 1830s. From 1794, the alternative term'line of battle ship' was contracted to'battle ship' or'battleship'; the sheer number of guns fired broadside meant a ship of the line could wreck any wooden enemy, holing her hull, knocking down masts, wrecking her rigging, killing her crew.
However, the effective range of the guns was as little as a few hundred yards, so the battle tactics of sailing ships depended in part on the wind. The first major change to the ship of the line concept was the introduction of steam power as an auxiliary propulsion system. Steam power was introduced to the navy in the first half of the 19th century for small craft and for frigates; the French Navy introduced steam to the line of battle with the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850—the first true steam battleship. Napoléon was armed as a conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots, regardless of the wind condition; this was a decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The introduction of steam accelerated the growth in size of battleships. France and the United Kingdom were the only countries to develop fleets of wooden steam screw battleships although several other navies operated small numbers of screw battleships, including Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Naples and Austria.
The adoption of steam power was only one of a number of technological advances which revolutionized warship design in the 19th century. The ship of the line was overtaken by the ironclad: powered by steam, protected by metal armor, armed with guns firing high-explosive shells. Guns that fired explosive or incendiary shells were a major threat to wooden ships, these weapons became widespread after the introduction of 8-inch shell guns as part of the standard armament of French and American line-of-battle ships in 1841. In the Crimean War, six line-of-battle ships and two frigates of the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed seven Turkish frigates and three corvettes with explosive shells at the Battle of Sinop in 1853. In the war, French ironclad floating batteries used similar weapons against the defenses at the Battle of Kinburn. Wooden-hulled ships stood up comparatively well to shells, as shown in the 1866 Battle of Lissa, where the modern Austrian steam two-decker SMS Kaiser ranged across a confused battlefield, rammed an Italian ironclad and took 80 hits from Italian ironclads, many of which were shells, but including at least one 300-pound shot at point-blank range.
Despite losing her bowsprit and her foremast, bei
USS Arizonan (ID-4542A)
USS Arizonan written ID-4542-A was a United States Navy cargo ship and troop transport in commission from 1918 to 1919. Arizonan was launched in 1902 at San Francisco, California, by the Union Iron Works as the commercial cargo ship SS Arizonan for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, she entered commercial service. Arizonan and her sister ship SS Alaskan—which served in the U. S. Navy as USS Alaskan —represented, according to a contemporary account, the "most advanced practice in the construction of ocean-going freighters and... a most important addition to the American merchant marine." Intended for carrying freight, Arizonan was designed as a strong ship with a large stowage capacity. After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Arizonan came under the control of the United States Shipping Board, which placed her in service under a United States Army account with a U. S. Navy Naval Armed Guard detachment aboard. In the summer of 1918, plans were made to have Arizonan manned by the U.
S. Navy for the Army account; the Commandant of the 5th Naval District was authorized to fit out the ship for operation by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service as long as the turnover could be accomplished without delaying the loading of the ship's next consignment of cargo. Accordingly, the Shipping Board transferred Arizonan on 10 August 1918 to the U. S. Navy, which gave her the Naval Registry Identification Number 4542A, commissioned her on 14 August 1918 as USS Arizonan with Lieutenant Commander Henry R. Patterson, USNRF, in command as she lay at an Army pier in Norfolk, Virginia. On 16 August 1918, Arizonan moved to Newport News, where she took on cargo, including 50 trucks as a deck load, earmarked for the American Expeditionary Force in France. Underway on the morning of 30 August 1918, she crossed the Atlantic Ocean in convoy and, after a brief stopover at Gibraltar from 17 September 1918 to 18 September 1918, reached Marseilles, late in the afternoon of 21 September 1918 and, over the ensuing days, discharged her cargo.
Departing Marseilles on 18 October 1918, Arizonan returned to Newport News in ballast, reaching the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway piers on the evening of 7 November 1918. Four days on 11 November 1918—the same day upon which the armistice with Germany was signed, ending World War I -- Arizonan moved out into the stream, opposite the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company yards. After a drydocking and repairs, she departed for New York City on the afternoon of 18 November 1918. Undergoing further repairs and alterations first at the Shewan and at the Morse Drydock company yard, Arizonan was taken in hand for conversion to a troop transport, her armament being removed at the Morse Drydock yard. Reassigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force on 14 December 1918, Arizonan remained at the Morse yard until late in January 1919 before shifting to one of the U. S. Army's major terminals, Bush Terminals, at Brooklyn, New York, to load additional gear in line with her recent metamorphosis into a troopship.
Subsequently underway on the afternoon of 26 February 1919, Arizonan streamed paravanes soon after sighting the European coast on 11 March 1919, indicative of the precautions taken against any naval mines which might still be in French waters. She reached Bassens, France, a northeastern suburb of Bordeaux where the U. S. Army had built a port facility during the war, on the evening of 12 March 1919, she discharged her cargo there moved to Pauillac, where she embarked "doughboys" for their trip home to the United States after their World War I service in France. She returned to Bush Terminals at Brooklyn on 3 April 1919. Arizonan departed Bush Terminals on 12 April 1919 for Bordeaux, she returned to Bush Terminals with them on 20 May 1919. She proceeded from Bush Terminals again on 7 June 1919. Arizonan left Bush Terminals on 11 July 1919 for her fourth voyage to Europe as a troop transport. On 15 July 1919, during her outbound voyage, she encountered the disabled Naval Overseas Transportation Service troop transport USS Edward Luckenbach and towed her 425 nautical miles back toward Boston, Massachusetts.
The United States Coast Guard cutter USCGC Ossipee joined the two troop transports on the afternoon of 17 July 1919. On the morning of 19 July 1919, Ossipee took over the towing duty from Arizonan, freeing Arizonan to continue on her voyage to France. Arizonan made port at St. Nazaire on the morning of 30 July 1919. Completing her loading of return cargo — accomplished with an unusual labor force consisting of French stevedores and German prisoners-of-war — by 19 August 1919, Arizonan embarked a comparatively small group of passengers and got underway that morning for the United States. Reaching Hoboken, New Jersey, on 2 September 1919, Arizonan finished discharging cargo and disembarking her passengers by 11 September 1919 and shifted to the Shewan's yard that day, she moved to Hoboken on the afternoon of 17 September 1919. Over the ensuing days, workmen dismantled the trappings of a troopship; as Arizonan lay moored alongside the U. S. Navy troop transport USS Pretoria at Pier 9, Army Docks, she was decommissioned on 29 September 1919.
Her name was struck from the Navy List that same day. Returned to the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, the ship operated under the flag of that company as SS Arizonan until she was transferred to Japanese ownership sometime during 1927 or 1928, she disappears from mercantile records soon after that, sug
Pennsylvania-class battleship
The Pennsylvania-class consisted of two super-dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy just before the First World War. The ships were named Arizona, after the American states of the same names, they constituted the United States' second battleship design to adhere to the "all or nothing" armor scheme, were the newest American capital ships when the United States entered the First World War. The Nevada-class battleships represented a marked increase in the United States' dreadnought technology, the Pennsylvania-class was intended to continue this with slight increases in the ships' capabilities, including two additional 14-inch /45 caliber guns and improved underwater protection; the class was the second standard type battleship class to join the US Navy, along with the preceding Nevada and the succeeding New Mexico and Colorado classes. In service, the Pennsylvania-class saw limited use in the First World War, as a shortage of oil fuel in the United Kingdom meant that only the coal-burning ships of Battleship Division Nine were sent.
Both were sent across the Atlantic to France after the war for the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, were transferred to the Pacific Fleet before being modernized from 1929 to 1931. For the remainder of the inter-war period, the ships were used in exercises and fleet problems. Both Pennsylvania and Arizona were present during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into the Second World War. Arizona was sunk by a massive magazine explosion and was turned into a memorial after the war, while Pennsylvania, in dry dock at the time, received only minor damage. After a refit from October 1942 to February 1943, Pennsylvania went on to serve as a shore bombardment ship for most of the remainder of the war. Pennsylvania was present at the Battle of Surigao Strait, the last battle between battleships, but did not engage. Pennsylvania was damaged by a torpedo on 12 August 1945, two days before the cessation of hostilities. With minimal repairs, it was used in Operation Crossroads, part of the nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll, before being expended as a target ship in 1948.
The preceding Nevada-class battleships represented a leap forward from previous American battleship technology and from most contemporary foreign designs. They were the first in the world to employ the "all or nothing" armor scheme that characterized every succeeding American battleship. Devised with the knowledge that engagement ranges between battle fleets was growing greater as main battery sizes increased, the system moved away from previous designs that used heavy and light armor, in favor of using only heavy armor to protect vital areas on the ship; the new system envisioned that, at long ranges, ships would be attacked with only armor-piercing projectiles, stoppable only by heavy armor. Medium or light armor would only serve to detonate the shells. By removing gun turrets and reducing the overall protected length of the ship, the navy's designers were able to devote the weight savings to the belt, as well as extra deck armor to protect against plunging shells. In issuing desired specifications for the design that would become the Nevada-class, the Navy's General Board asked for triple gun turrets, i.e. three guns mounted per turret.
They were unsatisfied with the awkward placement required on classes preceding the Nevadas, which had five and six two-gun turrets—yet moving back to the four two-gun turrets of the South Carolina class would be a significant loss in firepower. Although a triple turret was first proposed in American professional magazines in 1901 and considered for the South Carolinas, it was not in the experimental stage—the first turret was authorized in 1911 and would not be ready until months after contracts for the new ships would be signed with the shipbuilders; the decision to go ahead with the turret was a calculated gamble, but proved to be a qualified success. Moreover, there was a major benefit in weight thanks to the accompanying loss of an armored barbette and turret; these weight savings were applied to the armor protection, making the "all or nothing" concept a reality. The Nevadas were the first American battleships to use oil fuel, which had greater thermal efficiency than firing with coal or coal sprayed with oil.
The cumulative effect of the change was measured by the navy as a fifty-five percent increase in steam production per pound of fuel. This would give oil-fired vessels additional range, an important consideration for ships based in the Pacific, but the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair pointed out what it saw as the unfortunate side effects, including a lower center of gravity, higher metacentric height, the loss of coal bunkers, which were employed as part of the armor protection. Within a few years oil tanks below the waterline were considered indispensable parts of the underwater armor scheme employed in American dreadnoughts; the General Board's call for a new 1913 fiscal year battleship design was sent in June 1911 with the recent Nevada innovations in mind. They desired a ship with a main battery of twelve 14-inch guns in triple turrets, a secondary battery of twenty-two 5-inch guns, a speed of 21 knots, armor equivalent to that of the Nevadas. C&R's first sketch was unsatisfactory.
The design process was marked by various effor
