USS Kentucky (BB-6)

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USS Kentucky (hull number: BB-6), was the second and final Template:Sclass pre-dreadnought battleship built for the United States Navy in the 1890s. Designed for coastal defense, the Kearsarge-class battleships had a low freeboard and heavy armor. The ships carried an armament of four Template:Convert and four Template:Convert guns in an unusual two-story turret arrangement. The Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Virginia laid down her keel on 30 June 1896. She was launched on 24 March 1898 and was commissioned on 15 May 1900.

In her twenty years of service, Kentucky participated in no combat. Between 1901 and 1904, she served in East Asia, and from 1904 to 1907 she cruised the Atlantic. In 1907, she joined the Great White Fleet on its world tour, returning to the United States in 1909. She was modernized between 1909 and 1911, but did not operate again until 1915, when she sailed to the Mexican coast to participate in the American intervention in the Mexican Revolution, where she stayed until 1916. From 1917 until her decommissioning on 29 May 1920, she served as a training ship. She was sold for scrap on 24 March 1923.

Design

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A smaller turret on top of a bigger turret.
KentuckyTemplate:'s double turret, circa 1900–1901

The Kearsarge-class battleships were designed to be used for coastal defense.Template:Sfn They had a displacement of Template:Convert, an overall length of Template:Convert, a beam of Template:Convert and a draft of Template:Convert.Template:Sfn The two 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines and five Scotch boilers, connected to two propeller shafts, produced a total of Template:Convert, and gave a maximum speed of Template:Convert.Template:Sfn Kentucky was manned by 40 officers and 514 enlisted men, a total of 554 crew.Template:Sfn

Kentucky, like Template:USS, had two double turrets, with two [[13"/35 caliber gun|Template:Convert/35 caliber guns]] and two [[8"/40 caliber gun|Template:Convert/40 caliber guns]] each, stacked on two levels.Template:Sfn The guns and turret armor were designed by the Bureau of Ordnance, while the turret itself was designed by the Bureau of Construction and Repair. The configuration caused the guns to be mounted far back in the turret, making the ports very large. Admiral William Sims claimed that as a result of the gun mounting, a shell fired into the port could reach the magazines below, disabling the guns.Template:Sfn In addition to these guns, Kentucky carried fourteen [[5"/40 caliber gun|Template:Convert/40 caliber guns]], twenty 6-pounder (Template:Convert) guns, eight 1-pounder (Template:Convert) guns, four Template:Convert machine guns, and four [[American 18 inch torpedo|Template:Cvt]] torpedo tubes.Template:Sfn Kentucky had a very low freeboard, often making her guns unusable during bad weather.Template:Sfn

The ship's waterline armor belt was Template:Convert thick. Her main gun turrets were protected by Template:Convert of armor, while the secondary turrets had Template:Convert of armor. The barbettes were Template:Convert thick, and the conning tower had Template:Convert of armor.Template:Sfn The ship's armor was made of harveyized steel.Template:Sfn

Construction

Kentucky was authorized on 2 March 1895.Template:Sfn The contract for her construction was awarded on 2 January 1896,Template:Sfn and her keel was laid down on 30 June 1896 by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Virginia.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The total cost was $4,998,119.43.Template:Sfn In preparation for the KentuckyTemplate:'s christening, the Navy asked Kentucky Governor William O'Connell Bradley to select a member of his family to perform the ceremony. Bradley chose his daughter, Christine, who was attending school in Washington, D.C.Template:Sfn The Bradleys were a family of teetotalers,Template:Sfn so Governor Bradley sent a bottle of water from Lincoln Spring in Hodgenville, Kentucky, for Christine to use during the ceremony.Template:Sfn Kentucky was christened on 24 March 1898, the same day as her sister ship, Kearsarge.Template:Sfn Soon after Miss Bradley broke the bottle of water over the KentuckyTemplate:'s bow, a delegation from the Women's Christian Temperance Union, led by Frances Beauchamp, presented the governor's daughter with a gift of a silver tray, a water pitcher, and two goblets. The inscription read, "Kentucky Christian Temperance Union to Miss Christine Bradley, as a tribute to her loyalty to conviction in the christening of the Battleship Kentucky with water. March 10, 1898."Template:Sfn Kentucky was commissioned on 15 May 1900, under the command of Captain Colby Mitchell Chester.Template:Sfn

Service history

Kentucky painted white
Kentucky at Sydney, as part of the Great White Fleet, late August 1908. Kentucky shows the white hull after which the fleet was named.Template:Sfn

During the summer of 1900, Kentucky was fitted out in the New York Navy Yard.Template:Sfn On 26 October, during the Boxer Rebellion, she left Tompkinsville, Staten Island for China,Template:Sfn passing through GibraltarTemplate:Sfn and the Suez Canal.Template:Sfn On 5 February 1901 she arrived at Manila,Template:Sfn and on 23 March she replaced the protected cruiser Template:USS as the flagship of Rear Admiral Louis Kempff.Template:Sfn Between 1901 and 1904, Kentucky visited numerous ports in China and Japan, including Yantai,Template:Sfn Wusong,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Nanjing,Template:Sfn Taku Forts,Template:Sfn Hong Kong,Template:Sfn Xiamen,Template:Sfn Nagasaki,Template:Sfn Kobe,Template:Sfn and Yokohama.Template:Sfn In 1902, Kentucky became the flagship of Rear Admiral Frank Wildes, although he moved his flag to the distilling ship Template:USS on 12 April 1902.Template:Sfn In November 1902, she became the flagship of Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans.Template:Sfn

On 13 March 1904 she sailed from Manila, passing through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar, and arriving at New York City on 21 May.Template:Sfn After receiving upgrades at the New York Navy Yard, including the addition of smoke ejectors,Template:Sfn Kentucky joined the North Atlantic Squadron.Template:Sfn The battleship participated in the welcome of the British North Atlantic Squadron at Annapolis, Maryland, in October 1905.Template:Sfn During the 1906 Cuban Insurrection, she carried Marines to Cuba, embarking them from Provincetown on 23 September, and landing them at Havana, Cuba, on 1 October.Template:Sfn She remained there until 9 October, and then returned to New England.Template:Sfn Kentucky attended the Jamestown Exposition at Norfolk, Virginia, on 15 April 1907,Template:Sfn and then participated in exercises off the New England coast.Template:Sfn

Great White Fleet

In 1907, the Great White Fleet was ordered by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to circle the world, as a demonstration of the might of the United States Navy.Template:Sfn Kentucky was attached to the Fourth Division of the Second Squadron,Template:Sfn and was commanded by Captain Walter C. Cowles,Template:Sfn while the fleet as a whole was commanded by Rear Admiral Evans, KentuckyTemplate:'s former flag officer.Template:Sfn On 16 December 1907, the fleet saluted the presidential yacht Template:USS,Template:Sfn and left from Hampton Roads.Template:Sfn The fleet then sailed south, passing Trinidad and Rio de Janeiro,Template:Sfn and going through the Straits of Magellan.Template:Sfn From there she passed the west coast of South America, visiting Punta ArenasTemplate:Sfn and Valparaíso, Chile,Template:Sfn Callao, Peru,Template:Sfn and Magdalena Bay, Mexico.Template:Sfn The fleet arrived at San Diego on 14 April 1908Template:Sfn and continued to San Francisco on 6 May.Template:Sfn Two months later it arrived at Honolulu,Template:Sfn and from there sailed to Auckland, New Zealand, arriving on 9 August.Template:Sfn On 20 August, the fleet reached Sydney, Australia, and a week later sailed for Melbourne.Template:Sfn

Kentucky departed Albany, Western Australia, on 18 September, passing through ports in the Philippine Islands, Japan, China, and Ceylon before traveling through the Suez Canal.Template:Sfn The fleet split at Port Said on 8 January 1909, with Kentucky visiting Tripoli and AlgiersTemplate:Sfn before rejoining the other ships at Gibraltar.Template:Sfn She returned to Hampton Roads on 22 February, and was inspected by President Roosevelt.Template:Sfn

Later service

Kentucky, painting by marine painter Alexander Kircher, c. 1908

As with most of the Great White Fleet ships, Kentucky was modernized on her return.Template:Sfn She was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Naval ShipyardTemplate:Sfn on 28 August 1909,Template:Sfn and her modernization was completed in 1911, at a cost of $675,000.Template:Sfn The ship received cage masts, new water-tube boilers, and another four 5-inch guns. The 1-pounder guns were removed, as were sixteen of the 6-pounders.Template:Sfn On 4 June 1912, she was recommissioned in the Second Reserve, and on 31 May 1913 she was transferred to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in Philadelphia.Template:Sfn

She was recommissioned again at Philadelphia on 23 June 1915.Template:Sfn On 11 September that year, following the United States occupation of Veracruz, she sailed to Mexico, arriving at Veracruz on 28 September. She remained there during the Mexican Revolution, staying until 2 June 1916, except for a visit to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras festival in March 1916.Template:Sfn The battleship stopped at Guantanamo Bay Naval BaseTemplate:Sfn and Santo Domingo on her way back to Philadelphia, arriving there on 18 June 1916.Template:Sfn From July until September, she trained militiamen near Block Island and Boston.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn On 2 October Kentucky returned to New York,Template:Sfn and entered the New York Naval Shipyard on 2 January 1917,Template:Sfn remaining there until the United States entered World War I.Template:Sfn She arrived at Yorktown, Virginia on 2 May, and trained recruits along the Atlantic coast, from Chesapeake Bay to Long Island Sound.Template:Sfn During the war, she trained several thousand men, in 15 groups of recruits.Template:Sfn

Kentucky was overhauled at the Boston Navy Yard, beginning on 20 December 1918.Template:Sfn On 18 March 1919, she left for exercises in Guantánamo Bay, Norfolk, and along the New England coast.Template:Sfn Between 29 May and 30 August 1919, Kentucky trained United States Naval Academy midshipmen.Template:Sfn Following World War I, the United States agreed to the Washington Naval Treaty, which was aimed at preventing a naval arms race by limiting the size of the signatories' fleets.Template:Sfn As a result, many old and obsolete ships were scrapped, including Kentucky.Template:Sfn Kentucky was decommissioned on 29 May 1920.Template:Sfn Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 27 May 1922 and she was sold for scrap to Dravo Corporation on 24 March 1923.Template:Sfn

Citations

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