USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)
Service
- as Pennsylvania12 June 1916 — 29 August 19462,193 days of the war
- Name
- USS Pennsylvania
- Pennant / hull number
- BB-38
- Namesake
- Pennsylvania
- Builder
- Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
- Ordered
- 22 August 1912
- Laid down
- 27 October 1913
- Launched
- 16 March 1915
- Commissioned
- 12 June 1916
- Decommissioned
- 29 August 1946
- Struck
- 19 February 1948
- Fate
- Scuttled off Kwajalein Atoll after Operation Crossroads on 10 February 1948 (1948)
- Status
- Wreck
Specifications — As built
- Displacement, full load
- 31,917 long tons (32,429 t)
- Length
- 185.32 m (608 ft)
- Beam
- 29.6 m (97.1 ft)
- Draught
- 8.81 m (28.9 ft)
- Speed
- 21 knots (38.9 km/h, 24.2 mph)
- Range
- 7,552 nmi (13,986 km)
- Complement
- 56
- Main gun
- 356 mm (14 in)
The third Pennsylvania (Battleship No. 38) was laid down on 27 October 1913 at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; launched on 16 March 1915; sponsored by Miss Elizabeth Kolb, daughter of Louis J. Kolb, a friend of Governor Martin G. Brumbaugh of Pennsylvania; and commissioned on 12 June 1916, Capt. Henry B. Wilson in command.
Pennsylvania was attached to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and fitted out at the Norfolk (Va.) Navy Yard (1-20 July 1916). She put to sea for her trials moving on to the Southern Drill Grounds (20-22 July) and then to northeastern waters off New England and Long Island. She was off Martha’s Vineyard (25 July), at Newport, R.I. and off the Benton Reef Lightship (R.I.) (26-27 July), and Fort Pond Bay, Montauk, N.Y., (29 July-1 August). On 21 August, Rear Adm. Austin M. Knight and staff from the Naval War College came on board at Newport and the ship put to sea for fleet exercises. On 24 August, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt shifted from Rhode Island (Battleship No. 17) to Pennsylvania and broke the flag of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy at the main. Roosevelt remained on board until the following afternoon.
On 12 October 1916, Pennsylvania became flagship of Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, when Rear Adm. Henry T. Mayo shifted his flag from Wyoming (Battleship No. 32). The battleship spent Christmas Day at the New York Navy Yard.
Continue to the full service history About 8,479 words
From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Pennsylvania III (Battleship No. 38)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.
Armament and machinery
This vessel is recorded in 3 configurations. Wartime refits changed armament and complement substantially, so each is kept separately rather than averaged into one set of figures. The figures above are as built.
As built
- Propulsion
- 4 × Curtis ungeared/Westinghouse steam turbines
- 4 × screw propellers
- Power
- 12 × Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers
- 34000 shp
- Armament
- 12 × 14 in/45 cal guns (4×3)
- 22 × 5 in/51 cal guns
- 4 × 3 in/50 cal anti-aircraft guns
- 2 × submerged 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
- Armour
- Belt: 13.5 in
- Deck: 3 in (ends)
- Turrets: 18 in (faces)
- Conning Tower: 16 in
- Aircraft
- 2 × floatplanes
1931
- Displacement, standard
- 34,400 long tons (34,952 t)
- Displacement, full load
- 39,224 long tons (39,853 t)
- Main gun
- 356 mm (14 in)
- Power
- 6 × Bureau Express boilers
- Armament
- 12 × 14"/45 cal guns (4×3)
- 12 × 5"/51 cal guns
- 8 × 5"/25 cal anti-aircraft guns
- 8 × .50-cal M2 Browning machine guns
1942
- Main gun
- 356 mm (14 in)
- Armament
- 12 × 14"/45 cal guns (4×3)
- 16 × 5"/38 cal guns
- 40 × 40 mm Bofors guns
- 51 × 20 mm Oerlikon guns
Sister ships
Sources
- Facts harvested from USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) on Wikipedia. Figures only — no wording is taken from it.
- Service history reproduced verbatim from Pennsylvania III (Battleship No. 38) , Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships — public domain, a work of the United States Government.
- Photograph: USN — Official U.S. Navy photograph NH 67583 from the Naval History and Heritage Command — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons