USS Utah was the second and final member of the Florida class of dreadnought
battleships. The only ship of the United States Navy named after the state of
Utah, she had one sister ship, USS Florida. Utah was built by the New York
Shipbuilding Corporation, laid down in March 1909 and launched in December of
that year. She was completed in August 1911, and boasted a main battery of ten
12 in guns in five twin gun turrets. Utah and Florida were the first ships to
arrive during the United States occupation of Veracruz in 1914 during
the Mexican Revolution. The two battleships sent ashore a landing party
that began the occupation of the city. After the American entrance into World
War I, Utah was stationed in Bantry Bay, Ireland, where she protected convoys
from potential German surface raiders. Throughout the 1920s, the ship conducted
numerous training cruises and fleet maneuvers, and carried dignitaries on
tours of South America twice, in 1924 and 1928.
In 1931, Utah was demilitarized and converted into a target ship and
re-designated as AG-16, in accordance with the terms of the London Naval
Treaty signed the previous year. She was also equipped with numerous
anti-aircraft guns of different types to train gunners for the fleet. She served
in these two roles for the rest of the decade, and late 1941 found the ship in
Pearl Harbor. She was in port on the morning of 7 December, and in the first
minutes of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was hit by two torpedoes, which
caused serious flooding. Utah quickly rolled over and sank; the vast majority
of her crew were able to escape, but 64 men were killed in the attack. The wreck
remains in the harbor, and in 1972, a memorial was erected near the ship.
Design Utah was 521 feet 8 inches long overall
and had a beam of 88 ft 3 in and a draft of 28 ft 3 in. She displaced 21,825 long
tons as designed and up to 23,033 long tons at full combat load. The ship was
powered by four-shaft Parsons steam turbines rated at 28,000 shaft
horsepower and twelve coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers, generating a top speed
of 20.75 knots. The ship had a cruising range of 6,720 nautical miles at a speed
of 10 kn. She had a crew of 1001 officers and men.
The ship was armed with a main battery of ten 12 inch /45 Mark 5 guns in five
twin gun turrets on the centerline, two of which were placed in a superfiring
pair forward. The other three turrets were placed aft of the superstructure.
The secondary battery consisted of sixteen 5-inch /51 guns mounted in
casemates along the side of the hull. As was standard for capital ships of the
period, she carried a pair of 21 in torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on
the broadside. The main armored belt was 11 in thick, while the armored deck was
1.5 in thick. The gun turrets had 12 in thick faces and the conning tower had
11.5 in thick sides. Service history
Utah was laid down at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation on 15 March
1909. She was launched on 23 December 1909, and commissioned into the US Navy
on 31 August 1911. She then conducted a shakedown cruise that stopped in Hampton
Roads, Santa Rosa Island, Pensacola, Galveston, Kingston, Jamaica, and
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She was then assigned to the Atlantic Fleet in March
1912, after which time she participated in gunnery drills. She underwent an
overhaul at the New York Navy Yard starting on 16 April. Utah left New York
on 1 June and proceeded to Annapolis by way of Hampton Roads, arriving on 6
June. From there, she took a crew of naval cadets from the Naval Academy on a
midshipman training cruise off the coast of New England, which lasted until 25
August. For the next two years, Utah followed a
similar routine of training exercises and midshipman cruises in the Atlantic.
During the period 8–30 November 1913, Utah made a goodwill cruise to European
waters, which included a stop in Villefranche, France. In early 1914
during the Mexican Revolution, the United States decided to intervene in
the fighting. While en route to Mexico on 16 April, Utah was ordered to
intercept the German-flagged steamer SS Ypiranga, which was carrying arms to the
Mexican dictator Victoriano Huerta. Ypiranga '​s arrival in Veracruz
prompted the US to occupy the city; Utah and her sister ship Florida were the
first American vessels on the scene. The two ships landed a combined contingent
of a thousand marines and bluejackets to begin the occupation of the city on 21
April. Over the next three days, the marines battled rebels in the city and
suffered 94 casualties, while killing hundreds of Mexicans in return.
Utah remained off Veracruz for two months, before she returned to the New
York Navy Yard for an overhaul in late June. She spent the next three years
conducting the normal routine of training with the Atlantic Fleet. On 6
April 1917, the United States entered World War I, declaring war on Germany
over its unrestricted submarine warfare campaign against Britain. Utah was
stationed in Chesapeake Bay to train engine room personnel and gunners for
the rapidly expanding fleet until 30 August 1918, when she departed for
Bantry Bay, Ireland with Vice Admiral Henry T. Mayo, Commander-in-Chief of the
Atlantic Fleet aboard. After arriving in Ireland, Utah was assigned as the
flagship of Battleship Division 6, commanded by Rear Admiral Thomas S.
Rodgers. BatDiv 6 was tasked with covering convoys in the Western
Approaches against possible attacks from German surface raiders. Utah served in
the division along with Nevada and Oklahoma.
Following the end of the war in November 1918, Utah visited the Isle of Portland
in Britain, and escorted the liner George Washington in December, which
carried President Woodrow Wilson to Brest, France, for the post-war peace
negotiations at Versailles. Utah left Brest on 14 December, and arrived in New
York on the 25th of the month. She remained there until 30 January 1919,
after which time she returned to the normal peacetime routine of fleet
exercises and training cruises. On 9 July 1921, Utah departed for Europe,
stopping in Lisbon, Portugal, and Cherbourg, France. After arriving, she
became the flagship of American warships in Europe. She carried on in this role
until she was relieved by the armored cruiser USS Pittsburgh in October 1922.
Utah returned to the US on 21 October, where she returned to her old post as
the flagship of BatDiv 6. In early 1924, Utah took part in the Fleet Problem III
maneuvers, where she and her sister Florida acted as stand-ins for the new
Colorado-class battleships. Later that year, Utah was chosen to carry the US
diplomatic mission to the centennial celebration of the Battle of Ayacucho,
which took place on 9 December 1924. She left New York on 22 November with
General of the Armies John J. Pershing aboard for a goodwill tour of South
America; Utah arrived at Callao, Peru, on 9 December. At the conclusion of
Pershing's tour, Utah met him at Montevideo, Uruguay, and then carried
him to other ports, including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, La Guaira, Venezuela,
and Havana, Cuba. The tour ultimately ended when Utah returned Pershing to New
York on 13 March 1925. Utah conducted midshipman training cruises over the
summer of 1925. She was decommissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 31 October
1925, and placed in drydock for modernization. The modernization
replaced her coal-fired boilers with new oil-fired models, and her aft cage mast
was replaced with a pole mast. Utah returned to active duty on 1
December, after which she served with the Scouting Fleet. She left Hampton
Roads on 21 November 1928 for another South American cruise. This time, she
picked up President-elect Herbert C. Hoover and his entourage in Montevideo,
and transported them to Rio de Janeiro in December, and then carried them home
to the United States, arriving in Hampton Roads on 6 January 1929.
According to the terms of the London Naval Treaty of 1930, Utah was converted
into a radio-controlled target ship, to replace the older North Dakota. On 1
July 1931, Utah was accordingly redesignated "AG-16". Work was completed
by 1 April 1932, when she was recommissioned.
On 7 April, Utah left Norfolk for sea trials to train her engine room crew and
to test the radio-control equipment. She passed her radio control trials on 6
May, and on 1 June, the ship was operated for 3 hours under radio
control. On 9 June, she again left Norfolk, bound for San Pedro,
California, where she joined Training Squadron 1, Base Force, United States
Fleet. Starting in late July, the ship began her first round of target duty,
first for the cruisers of the Pacific Fleet, and then for the battleship
Nevada. She continued in this role for the next nine years; she participated in
Fleet Problem XVI in May 1935, during which she served as a transport for a
contingent of Marines. In June, the ship was modified to train anti-aircraft
gunners in addition to her target ship duties. To perform this task, she was
equipped with 1.1 in/75 cal anti-aircraft guns in quadruple mounts.
Utah returned to the Atlantic to participate in Fleet Problem XX in
January 1939, and at the end of the year, she trained with Submarine
Squadron 6. She then returned to the Pacific, arriving in Pearl Harbor on 1
August 1940. There, she conducted anti-aircraft gunnery training until 14
December, when she departed for Long Beach, California, arriving on 21
December. There, she served as a bombing target for aircraft from the carriers
Lexington, Saratoga, and Enterprise. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 1 April
1941, where she resumed anti-aircraft gunnery training. She cruised to Los
Angeles on 20 May to carry a contingent of Marines from the Fleet Marine Force
to Bremerton, Washington, after which she entered the Puget Sound Navy Yard on
31 May, where she was overhauled. She was equipped with new 5 in/38 cal dual
purpose guns in single mounts to improve her ability to train anti-aircraft
gunners. She left Puget Sound on 14 September, bound for Pearl Harbor, where
she resumed her normal duties through the rest of the year.
= Attack on Pearl Harbor= In early December 1941, Utah was moored
off Ford Island in berth F-11, after having completed another round of
anti-aircraft gunnery training. Shortly before 08:00 on the morning of 7
December, some crewmen aboard Utah observed the first Japanese planes
approaching to attack Pearl Harbor, but they assumed they were American
aircraft. The Japanese began their attack shortly thereafter, concentrating
on the battleships moored around Ford Island. At 08:01, the first of two
torpedoes struck Utah, which caused serious flooding. The ship began to list
to port and settle by the stern. As the crew began to abandon ship, one
man—Chief Watertender Peter Tomich—remained below decks to ensure as
many men could escape, and to keep vital machinery running as long as possible;
he received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions.
At 08:12, Utah rolled over onto her side, while those crew members who had
managed to escape swam to shore. Almost immediately after reaching shore, the
ship's captain, Commander Solomon Isquith, heard knocking from men trapped
in the capsized ship. He called for volunteers to secure a cutting torch
from the badly damaged cruiser Raleigh and attempt to free trapped men; they
succeeded in rescuing four men. In total, 64 officers and men were killed,
though 461 survived. = Salvage=
The Navy declared Utah to be "in ordinary" on 29 December, and she was
placed under the authority of the Pearl Harbor Base Force. Following the
successful righting of the capsized Oklahoma, an attempt was made to right
the Utah by the same parbuckling method using 17 winches. As Utah was rotated,
she did not grip the harbor bottom, and slid towards Ford Island. The Utah
recovery effort was abandoned, with Utah rotated 38 degrees from horizontal.
As abandoned, Utah cleared her berth. There was no further attempt to refloat
her; unlike the battleships sunk at Battleship Row, she had no military
value. She was formally placed out of commission on 5 September 1944, and then
stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 13 November. Utah received one battle
star for her brief service during World War II. Her rusting hulk remains in
Pearl Harbor, partially above water; the men killed when Utah sank were never
removed from the wreck, and as such, she is considered a war grave.
Memorial In around 1950, two memorials were
placed at the wreck dedicated to the men in the ship's crew who were killed in
the attack on Pearl Harbor. The first is a plaque located on the wharf to the
north of the ship, and the second is a plaque that was placed on the ship
itself. In 1972, a larger memorial was erected just off Ford Island, near the
sunken wreck. The memorial consists of a 70-foot walkway made of white concrete,
which extends from Ford Island out to a 40 by 15 ft platform in front of the
ship, where a brass plaque and a flagpole are located. A color guard
stands watch over the wreck. On 9 July 1988, Utah and Arizona, the other
remaining wreck in the harbor, were nominated to be added to the National
Historic Landmark registry. Both wrecks were added to the list on 5 May 1989. As
of 2008, seven former crewmen who were aboard Utah at the time of her sinking
have been cremated and had their ashes interred in the wreck.
Relics from the ship are also preserved in the Utah state capitol building;
among the items on display are pieces from the ship's silver service and the
captain's clock. The ship's bell is on permanent display at the University of
Utah near the entrance of the Naval Science Building.
Awards Mexican Service Medal
World War I Victory Medal with "Atlantic Fleet" and "Grand Fleet" clasps
American Defense Service Medal Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one
campaign star World War II Victory Medal
Notes Footnotes
Citations References
Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships:
1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-87021-907-3.
Jones, Jerry W.. United States Battleship Operations in World War One.
Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1557504113.
Nalty, Bernard C.. War in the Pacific: Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay. Norman, OK:
University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806131993.
Nofi, Albert A.. To Train The Fleet For War: The U.S. Navy Fleet Problems,
1923–1940. Washington, DC: Naval War College Press. ISBN 978-1-88-473387-1.
Online sources "Former Sailor Interred at USS Utah
Memorial". Retrieved 5 May 2013. "Pearl Harbor Area Attractions".
Retrieved 5 May 2013. Lenihan, Daniel J.. "Submerged Cultural
Research Study". National Park Service. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
"USS Utah Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii". Retrieved 10 October 2015.
"USS Utah - The 100th Anniversary". Retrieved 7 May 2013.
"Utah". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval
History & Heritage Command. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
NavSource Online: Battleship Photo Archive BB-31 USS UTAH
Further reading Madsen, Daniel. Resurrection: Salvaging
the Battle Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute
Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-488-3. OCLC 50982380.
Breyer, Siegfried. Battleships and Battle Cruisers 1905–1970. Doubleday and
Company. ISBN 0-385-07247-3.