New Jersey (BB 62) - Naval Cruise Book

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N1 .Q 3 X Contents People 17 Places 109 gm 5-'53 W Gd

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Qmise ff MEN-X l6?Xi'7f0 Q Modern Dreadnought 'GA battleship is truly an engineering feat that is nothing less than a man-made marvel. But a battleship is much more than that which was just described. Any man who has ever walked her decks has a secure feeling for her endurance under punishing at- tack, felt the rumble of her engines propelling the massive vessel through the worst of sea storms and feeling a pride unequalled in other naval services, has truly lived an ex- citing lifef' 'fHour of Dreadnoughts in the Pacific War by Ed- ward J. Colina, Copyright 1983, Develle Publishing House Inc. Cincinnati, Ohio Pre-Dreadnoughts The use of armored ships can be tracedto the Korean navy's 'ftortoise ships which defeated the Japanese invasion fleet of 1592. But the era of the battleship as we know it has lasted less than a century. Once con- sidered the most powerful ships afloat, hundreds of them plied the seas freely, conducting bombard- ments and anti-ship ac- tions as the capital ships of naval warfare. When NEW JERSEY CBB-621 was launched, she repre- sented the apex of the evo- lutionary cycle of these battleships. Sadly, she was also one of the last. As submarines and naval air- craft also evolved, the be- hemoth battleships began to fade away. The beginnings of the dreadnoughts can be . found in the advent of iron 1 I plate armor and finally, 2 iron hulls prior to the I U. S. Civil War. During the war, naval rifles were developed which could penetrate the armor. Engineers, in turn would make armor thicker to withstand hits by the largest guns fthis required using rough- ly a one-to-one ratio between inches of armor thickness and shell diameterj. The armor would require larger hulls to keep it all afloat. Consequently, bigger guns were developed and a cycle ensued. The equation was further complicated by the advent of the explosive shell. Meanwhile, the Civil War presented a classic engage- ment between the ironclads. The Union's NIONITOR and the Rebel VIRGINIA, or MERRIMAK, battled at New- port News for several hours at point-blank range. Little more than dents resulted and shore batteries were entirely ineffec- tive in turning away the VIRGINIA, which had earlier sunk USS NEW JERSEY QBB-16, 2 I Modern Dreadnought a wooden Union ship-of-the-line Cwhere the term battleship comes fromj. A new respect for these iron ships began an inter- national race to acquire them. As was sail for steam, wood was traded for iron, cannon for long-bored rifles.', Dreadnoughts Guns, armor and hulls were much larger by the turn of the century. At about this time a British warship of revolution- ary design, incorporating the latest features, was launched with a name taken from the family motto of British Fleet Admiral John Fisher of Kilverstone, which was Fear God and Dread Noughtf' Shortened to HMS DREADNOUGHT, it was the first battleship to carry only the largest guns shattering a previ- ous standard that ships carry several sizes of guns, not necessar- ily in turrets on the centerline. It was believed to be the most powerful battleship and so excited the world that its name be- came a synonym for battleship. It even inspired one American congressman to suggest changing the I name of one of the U. S. battleships to USS SKEERED-O-NOTHINJ' The first encounter between batt- i leships was at Tsushima Straits in 1905, when Japan destroyed Russia's Baltic Fleet. Later, in one of the most memora- ble naval battles ever, 58 battleships, dreadnoughts and pre-dreadnoughts, slugged it out in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. USS NEW JERSEY CBB-161 The first New Jersey, the United States, 16th battleship, was built by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, Mass. Her keel was laid April 2, 1902. She was launched Nov. 10, 1904 and placed in commission May 12, 1906. She was one of 16 white-painted battleships that sailed out of Hampton Roads on the morning of Dec. 16, 1907 on a world cruise as part of President Theodore Roosevelt's bully Great White Fleet. The successful cruise proved to the world that the United States was emerging from former isolationism and able to project and sus- tain power overseas, giving Teddy the ability to speak softly, but carry a big stick, while conducting international diploma- cy. ieiiiv Fi hoto Ironically, NEW JERSEY and other battleships were sunk in experimental bombing runs by aircraft serving under General Billy Mitchell, who used these tests to support his ideas that the battleships were obsolete in the face of air power. NEW JERSEY sank off Cape Hattaras, N. C., Sept. 5, 1922. While many agreed with General Mitchell, some impor- tant facts were overlooked in his argument. First, these were dead ships which could not maneuver, put up no anti-aircraft fire and had no crew to exercise damage control, often the dif- ference between life and death for a crippled warship. In addi- 51 r. 5 ii il li l