California (BB 44) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 18 text:

centered task forces are a major component of the U.S. Navy. Submarines played a pivotal role in the Atlantic in World War I and in all oceans in World War II, antisubmarine warfare absorbed an increasingly large proportion of military re- sources. This trend is very much evident to- day and has been accelerated by the appear- ance of nuclear-powered submarines. Radar, sonar, and sophisticated electronic sensors be- came part of naval warfare, and smaller anti- submarine vessels such as frigates and cor- vettes were designed. Amphibious warfare, important from Napoleonic times, gained renewed importance in World War II. Britain and the United States developed highly specialized vessels for am- phibious -warfare, notably the LST Clanding ship tankl for putting armored vehicles ashore on unprepared beaches. Tracked amphibious- assault vehicles were developed, along with specialized ships to carry them. Vessels of these types, recently joined by the helicopter assault carrier, continue to play an important role in the wor1d's major navies. Since World War II, naval forces have been profoundly affected by the appearance of nuclear weapons, nuclear propulsion, and guided missiles. The nuclear-powered ballis- tic-missile submarine is now considered a capi- tal ship in the navies of the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. All of these navies also have nuclear-powered at- tack submarines. Ships of all types are now armed with guided antiship missiles whose range and power have rendered guns essential obsolete as a means of engaging major naval units. The nuclear guided missile cruiser, Calyfornia CCGN-365 is an example of the evolution of U.S. Navy ships and modern Navy tactics which accompany the new technology. Ac- tive, electronic defenses have replaced passive armored protection. Antiaircraft missiles have assumed the main burden of protection of in- dividual ships from air attack, supplementing carrier-based interceptor aircraft, themselves armed with missiles, in the defense of carrier task forces. While enormously increasing the offensive potential of naval forces, nuclear weapons have also complicated the problem of fleet defense, calling into question the con- cept of massed task forces. THE FIRST FOUR CALIFORNIA SHIPS THE S CREW-SLooP CALIFORNIA The first naval vessel to honor the State of California was a Civil War-designed sloop- of-war launched at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Navy yard on July 3, 1-867. It was originally christened the Minnetonka. The Minnetonka 's completion was slowed by post- war govemment economies. On May 15, 1869, the vessel's name was changed to Calyfornia and she was finally commissioned on Decem- ber 12, 1870 with Captain J .M.B. Clitz as the commanding officer. The Calyornia displaced 2,354 tons and as the first Calnfornia was 313 feet, six inches long which was a little under one-half the length of the USS Calyfornia CBB-445. Her beam was 46 feet with a draft of 17 feet two inches. Ship-rigged with sails, as well as a coal-burning steam engine which turned a single propeller, the sloop could make 12 knots speed under the very best of conditions. Her armament of 23 guns was mixed: two 100- pound rifles, one 60-pound rifle, a pair of 20- pound rifles, and 18 smooth bore nine-inch cannons. Her complement was 325 officers and men. The Calyfornia reached San Francisco via the Straights of Magellan on July 30, 1871. There she became the flagship of Rear Admi- ral John A. Winslow, whose USS Kearsarge had sunk the Confederate Alabama off Cherbourg, France, in 1864. Following a year- long cruise to Hawaii, Chile and Columbia, the sloop retumed to Mare Island, where she was turned over to Rear Admiral A.M. Pennock, commanding the North Pacific Squadron and Civil War fleet captain of the Navy's Missis- sippi Squadron. In November, 1872, Admiral Pennock took the Calqfornia out to Hawaii once more, this time to supervise the protection of American interests in Honolulu. The ship re- turned to San Francisco in May, 1873, where she was decommissioned. Two years later, in May, 1875, the Calqfornia was sold. THE ARMoREo CRUISER CAL1FORN1AfSAN D1EGo KA CRXCA-61 The second Calnfornia CACR-65 was the last of three armored cruisers authorized by the Naval Building Act of March 3, 1899, and the one designated to be built on or near the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Sponsored by Miss F. Pardee, daughter of California Governor George C. Pardee. The ship was sister to the Pennsylvania CACR-45 and West Virginia CACR-51. The California CACR-63 was launched on April 28, 1904, at the San Fran- cisco yards ofthe Union Iron Works. Follow- ing a delay in the completion of her outfitting caused by the great Earthquake of 1906, the cruiser was commissioned on August 1, 1907 with Captain V.L. Cottman in command. In a gleaming coat of white and spar color, the 53.8 million Caljornia displaced 13,680 tons with a normal load. She was 503 feet 11 inches long with a beam of 69 feet seven inches and a mean draught of 24 feet one inch. Ar- mor on the mail belt ran five to six inches, de- pending on location, while steel protection on the turrets was six inches, with nine inches on the conning tower. Her main armament con- sisted of four eight-inch guns in twin turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. The secondary defenses featured 14 six-inch guns arranged in easements, seven to a side, plus 18 three-inch quick-firer guns and two 18-inch submerged torpedo tubes. Two three- inch anti-aircraft guns would be added in 1917. The two-shafted vertical reciprocating engines and BW, type WT, coal-fired boilers gave 23,000 indicated horsepower, sufficient for a seldom-achieved speed of 22 knots. Bunker space was provided for 2,075 tons of coal. Though the vessel was originally equipped with two military masts, the foremast would be removed in 1911 and replaced by a cage mast which, together with four funnels, proved the ship's most distinguishing features. Berths were provided for 47 officers and 782 enlisted personnel, although in the years before World War I, the ship would be lucky to have 370 volunteer bluejackets, including flag comple- ment and United States Marines. Following the Shakedown cruise, Captain Cottmanls proud new vessel took part in a May, 1908, San Francisco naval review. Shortly af- terward, the Calgfornia became the flagship of Rear Admiral Giles B. Harber, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. That fall, she ac- companied the U.S. Armored Cruiser Squad- ron on a short Pacific cruise to Hawaii and Sa- moa. The cruiser would spend much of her early career as a flagship in the Far East and Pacific, serving on those routine training and flag-showing cruisers common to many Ameri- can vessels prior to World War I. ln early 1910, the CalUfornia's top two officers were rotated. Their replacements were destined to achieve illustrious naval stature. The new captain was Captain Henry T. Mayo. He would become commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet in 1917 while the new Execu- tive Officer, Commander William V. Pratt, would be named Chief of Naval Operations in 1930. In the summer of 1910, the Calnfornia returned to the West Coast for a year of over- haul and what seemed to her crew as never ending drills which included division maneu- vers, target firing, director drills and night mock attacks by torpedo boat flotillas. Both Mayo and Pratt were transferred to other com- mands in the early part of 1911. In December, 1911, the Calyfomia departed Mare Island for Honolulu and in March, 1912. she continued westward for a brief tour on the Asiatic Station, visiting ports in China, Japan, and the Philippines. By August, she was back in San Francisco, from where she was ordered to Corinto, Nicaragua, to protect American lives and property dtuing a time of internal political disturbances. When the Nicaraguan troubles ended, the cruiser resumed her training off the West Coast, often slipping down to Mexican wa- ters when Mexico faced internal strife. On September 1. 1914, the Calnfornia was renamed the San Diego. in order to permit as- signment of the state name to the newly au- thorized battleship. Thereafter. the cruiser con- tinued her intermittent service as fleet flagship until a boiler explosion forced her into Mare Island for repair. The ship remained in re- duced commissionl' through the summer of 1915 after which time she resumed her flag- ship status until February 12, 1917. when she was placed in reserve. The San Diego is reserve status lasted less than two months. She was returned to full com- mission on April 7, 1917. She immediately began operations as flagship for Commander. Patrol Force. Pacific Fleet. On July 18. 1917. the now largely obsolete warship was ordered. via the Panama Canal. to the East Coast. This

Page 17 text:

.4 ,g 3'- it it Q1 if Il lil! I' it U :ig all-M We -amz 1. .V 1? -it rw! 19 -EFA E i Wall' ti-H ' .eff 9 il F' Y - x -fix g ar iw A 5' Q we , f, f .-- X ts r ff' - vs. Wx x X Si.. X fg x f,ff, r -,jf Sass? X W :Ng ts, x ss . js.: Q - ,f ffm USS California leading a battleship division in maneuvers ojfSan Diego, 23 October 1926. Overhead is a Douglas torpedo plane. lCourtesy ofHarold Bean.l At the close of World War ll, the U.S. Navy was incomparably the world'S strongest. Britain's Royal Navy, while still a major force, did not have the economic and industrial foun- dation ofthe U.S. Navy. Gradually, as its em- pire broke up, Great Britain reduced its over- seas naval operations. THE NUCLEAR AGE The U.S. Navy's only serious rival was the U.S. Air Force. Air Force lobbyists argued that future wars would be won with nuclear bombs, a strategy in which the U.S. Navy had no role because nuclear bombs were at that time too large and heavy to be carried by carrier- based aircraft. The U.S. Navy between 1947 and 1950 countered with plans for esupercamersr but was unsuccessful. NA VAL VESSELS There were six naval vessels to honor the State of California. They were the screw-sloop, the annored cruiser, the large converted steam yacht, the small converted steam yacht, the battleship, and the nuclear guided missile cruiser. The symbol of naval warfare from the turn of the century until World War ll was the dreadnought BATTLESHIP, named for HMS Dreadnought, the first of its kind, launched in 1906. This type of battleship, with a turret- mounted main battery consisting of a limited number of the largest guns that could be mounted and dispensing with secondary arma- ment, dominated naval warfare until the sub- marine and the aircraft carrier reached matu- rity. Battleships grew steadily in size and power, and sophisticated fire-control systems with optical ranging and electrical control were adopted, battleships continued to look much like the HMS Dreadnought, however, until they were retired in the 1950s. The battleship, an armored fighting ship of the largest and most powerful class, emerged in the 1870s as a separate and distinct class. lt could defeat anything else afloat, and it domi- nated naval warfare for seven decades until World War ll, during which the biggest battle- ships of all were built. lt name is derived from the line-of-battle ship in the time of sailing vessels, when ships went into combat in a line- ahead tcolumnl formation. The battleship was developed in the mid- 19th century when armor was applied to the hulls of warships- a step taken in response to the introduction of the shell-firing cannon. De- signers experimented with various armament and protection methods. At first, mixed arma- ment was use. French battleships, in particu- lar, resembled weird floating castles from which turreted guns of all sizes jutted out in every direction. Early battleship design cul- minated after 1900 in the creation of the dreadnought battleship. On the dreadnought, major secondary annament was dispensed with to make room for larger guns. It carried a uni- form main battery of the largest guns that could be mounted. Battleship strength was considered a ma- jor component of national power, and nations expended enormous efforts to build the most powerful vessels possible. The result was con- tinuous development. Larger and faster battle- ships were built, with improved armor protec- tion and increased offensive power. The gen- eral trend was toward larger guns, fewer in number and mounted in larger turrets. Design- ers sought the greatest destructive power while conserving weight. The British ship HMS Dreadnought, which put to sea in 1906, displaced some 22,000 tons at full load, had a speed of 21 knots, and mounted ten 12-inch guns in five turrets. The British Queen Elizabeth class, launched in World War I, displaced some 33,000 tons at full load, could make about 25 knots, and mounted eight 15-inch guns in four turrets. De- velopment reached its peak in World War II with the American Iowa class and Yamatos. The USS Iowa, fully loaded, displaced some 56,000 tons, mounted nine 16-inch guns, and could make 33 knots. Yamato, although slower with a maximum speed of 27 knots, displaced nearly 73,000 tons, making it the largest battle- ship ever built. The USS Calzfornia QBB-443 displaced 32,600 Cnormall or 35,190 tons Cfull loadj with a best trial run of 21.46 knots and a main ar- mament- her reason for being- consisting of a dozen separately sleeved 14-inchl50 caliber 81.7-ton guns mounted in superfiring triple turrets, two forward and two aft. All U.S. Navy battleships were decommis- sioned in 1958 as the development of long- range missiles threatened even the most pow- erful ships. The USS New Jersey returned to service briefly during the Vietnam War as a specialized land-bombardment vessel. ln 1981, Congress appropriated funds for recommis- sioning of the USS New Jersey and three other battleships as part of a general naval buildup. During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the USS Wisconsin and the USS Missouri were used to shell hardened targets in Kuwait, firing cruise missiles as well as guns. The USS New Jersey was decommissioned in 1991, and both the USS Missouri and the USS Vldsconsin were decom- missioned in 1992 as a result of a reduction in military budgets. The USS Iowa had been de- commissioned in 1990 following an explosion in one of her gun turrets. This ended an era of battleship history which included the distin- guished service of the USS Calhfornia CBB-445. ln their period of dominance, battleship fleets were screened by squadrons of armored cruisers and unarmored destroyers. The cruis- ers of the two World Wars were essentially small, fast battleships with lighter armor and guns and assumed an antisubmarine role equal in importance to their function of screening the main fleet. Aircraft carriers, used tentatively in World War 1, became major capital ships in World War ll, deploying powerful squadrons of dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighters. Car- riers dominated fleet actions in the Pacific and were also important elsewhere. Today, carrier-

Page 19 text:

N 32. R . N M Fi: .um mtlai if 'Nat if Wir 'fig fm, 'Psi I 32? n. . .. v--. vi T' . 'av-. E' s. L 1 . Nlg. 1 C H' ' '54 -'- .at , .apr . ... we .. .Zn- ' fr .'r-ra .i 1. fpiff' . f-gt.: ..1 2. sl 3- my - .... . .. 1 .Kill ,v 1 dl - ,Y-'e ..1. ff I H. '41 arf. lrix if A 31335: 1, -wifi: an ,..m' 'F' rfimi ,if-. .ir if rfb- .. -F' . ft-'ft , +15-ff -TI fr, ef W ' I sw, .A v. ' aff i' ,. -ts . ' wild: wr' 3-if 't rf if ar'-'B' was the first time she had left the Pacific Ocean. The San Diego joined Cruiser Division Two at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on August 4, 1917, and within a few days, began a month's long duty as flagship for Commander, Cruiser Force, Atlantic Fleet. The essential duty now set aside for the San Diego was to join her sister ships in the coastal escort of convoys through the first dan- gerous leg of their passages to England and France. Throughout the fall and winter and into the spring of 1918, the armored cruiser, basing at either Tompkinville, New York, or Halifax, Nova Scotia, safely conducted her charges out to meet their open-ocean escorts in the storm-ridden and submarine-infested North Atlantic. During those months, she put in a single overseas trip, to LaCrosie, France, in November, 1917. ln April, 1918, the German admiralty elected to launch a concentrated campaign against United States shipping in the Ameri- can waters. Consequently, it ordered seven of its largest U-boats, including four of the con- verted Deutschland-class mercantile subma- rines, to ply Yankee waters at staggered five to six week intervals between mid-April and late August. Employing torpedoes, gunfire and, more importantly, mines laid in random fields, these enemy boats harassed coastal shipping and disturbed the convoy people in the Navy Department, although the effort would actu- ally have no lasting impact on the American war effort. One of the U-boats sent to operate off the East Coast during this German offensive was the converted Deutschland-class giant U-156. Among the locations her skipper chose to drop his many mines were the shipping lanes along Fire Island, on the Atlantic side of Long ls- land, New York. There, southeast of Sandy Hoof off the Fire Island light, the San Diego, enroute to New York from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, hit one of the mines on July 19, 1918. Although the cruiser sank only 28 min- utes after the great explosion rocked her hull, only six crewmen perished. There were 1,183 survivors which were quickly picked up and removed to safety. The San Diego, representative of the Golden State of California for more than ten years, was gone. She was the largest United States Navy warship lost to enemy action dur- ing World War I. Perhaps, it would have com- forted the widows, family, and friends of her dead sailors to know that, within two months, the U-boat that had sown the mine that claimed the San Diego and the lives of some of her crew would also be sunk- ironically by an Ameri- can mine. Retuming to Germany at the end of September, 1918, the 1,512-ton, 213 foot U- 156 struck a United States Navy mine while attempting a passage through the North Sea Mine Barrage and sank. There were only 26 crew members who survived. THE LARGE CONVERTED- YACHT CALIFORNIMHA UOLI K S P-24 9 J In response to the demand of a rich pa- tron, Clara B. Stocker, the Brooklyn firm of Robbins Drydock Company built a steam yacht in 1903. This elaborately appointed vessel dis- placed 299 tons and was 21 l feet long. It had a 22-foot beam and an eight-foot draft. On trial runs she proved herself a fast steamer at 19 knots. Mrs. Stocker was well pleased with her acquisition and christened her Hauoli, which is the Hawaiian word for delight, The yacht was employed for parties and pleasure cruises. Sometime before 1917, the ship's name was changed to Calqfornia for some unknown reason. When the United States joined World War I, the U.S. Navy found itself with a pressing need for escort, patrol, and dispatch vessels. Learning that Mrs. Stocker was willing to sell the Calqfornia, fleet representatives purchased the vessel in August, 1917, taking her into the Navy as the third Caljornia the same month the former Calyfornia, now San Diego, arrived in Virginia. Outfitted at the New York Navy Yard, the yacht was converted into a patrol vessel, she was painted gray and armed with two six-pound cannons and a pair of machine guns. The new Calgfornia was designated SP- 249 and commissioned the day before Christ- mas. The Lt. j. g. W. Applebye-Robinson, U.S. Naval Reserve Force, was the commanding officer. The Calqbrnias first year was passed as a patrol vessel in New York harbor. There word reached her on February 18, 1918, that some- body in Washington had noted the state name of California was reserved and she would have to be rechristened. Accordingly, Calyfornia CSP-2495 became the Hauoli once again. Her wartime service occasionally took her outside the harbor transporting passengers to and from convoys, but all-in-all, her World War I opera- tions were routine and without incident. On January 28, 1919, the Hauoli was transferred to special duty and began her most significant service. For the next seven months, she was assigned to the experimental use of Thomas A. Edison. The famous inventor was then engaged in a series of anti-submarine warfare experimentsg listening devices of his design were installed in Hauoli and tested in and around New York harbor. Before demobi- lization cut short the experiments with the gun- boat, she was withdrawn from Edison and de- commissioned on October 8, 1919. On Sep- tember 7, 1920, the little warship was sold to the Denton Shore Lumber Company in Tampa, Florida. THE SMALL C ONVERTED-YACHT CALIFORNIA TSP-6472 The fourth Calgfornia was also a steam yacht, built in San Francisco in 1910. Some- time before 19l7, the 84-ton, 58-foot vessel, which could make 9.2 knots full throttle, passed into the hands of the San Francisco Bar Pilot's Association. She was loaned to the U.S. Navy on the outbreak of war and was commissioned as SP-647. This Caljornia served on local patrol until she was returned to her owners at the end of 1918. THE BUILDING OF THE USS CALIFORNIA CBB-441 CREATION The General Board, that senior U.S. Navy council which set the characteristics to which all American warships were designed between 1910 and 1945, laid great importance on the ability of pre-World War II battleships to op- erate together as a fleet, especially in the Pa- cific. This view was operationally held by all Navy leaders from the chief of naval opera- tions downwards. As far as possible, these people insisted that successive designs be given similar speeds, radii of action, and handling! survivability qualities. This orderly process was not lost on U.S. lawmakers, who continu- ously specified in their battlewagon authori- zation acts that new ships carry as heavy ar- mor and as powerful armaments as any vessel of their classf' Indeed, the General Board al- ways advocated dreadnoughts which would equal or outclass the latest of Britain, Germany, or Japan. The General Board characteristics drawn up in 1910 called for oil-burning battleships which featured all-or-nothing armor, i.e., heavy steel along the waterline and over vital areas and little medium-weight protection, machinery for 21 knots, and a dozen 14-inch rifles in triple turrets. On March 3, 1915, with World War I then seven months old and Japan restless in the Pacific, Congress authorized President Woodrow Wilson to acquire two more battleships in addition to the three of the New Mexico class allowed the previous year. Whatever came, American leaders would have the Navy, the nation's first line of defense, ready. Authorized as Battleship No. 44, the Cali- fornia, and her sister the Tennessee fNo. 435, were, with only minor changes, a duplication of the three New Mexicos. Janes Fighting Ships called their design practically identicalf' Congress, in allowing the pair, had specified that neither exceed a delivery cost of 557.8 mil- lion, less armor and armament. Total cost for the ship was 512.75 million. While that still seems like a lot of money, and in 1915 dollars it was, these ultimates in strategic weaponry for their day were each completed for slightly over 45 percent of the 1981 projected cost of reactivating the World War II New Jersey CBB- 62J for service with today's fleet. Indeed, BB- 441s cost would be only 25.64 percent of the 55200 million price of her successor, GCN-36. Calling her the most powerful battleship in the world, officials of the Bureau of Con- struction and Repair on October 28, 1915, as- signed the task of building the Calyfornia to the Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, Califor- nia. There the keel was laid on October 25, 1916, a few days short of six months follow- ing the Battle of Jutland. The first frames were up within weeks, and as inspectors checked the progress through 1916-1919, thousands of builders, when not building more urgently re- quired escorts and merchantmen, worked on the hull. As the time of launch approached,