USS South Dakota
General Statistics
Displacement: 13,680 tons
Length: 504feet
Beam: 69 6 in feet
Draft: 26 1 in feet
Speed: 22 knots
Complement: 830 officers and men
Armament: 4 x 8 inch guns
14 x 6 inch guns
18 x 3 inch guns
The second USS South Dakota (ACR-9), also referred to "Armored Cruiser No. 9", and later renamed Huron (CA-9), was a United States Navy Pennsylvania-class armoured cruiser.
She was launched on the 21st of July 1904 by the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California, sponsored by Grace Herreid (daughter of Charles N. Herreid, Governor of South Dakota), and commissioned on the 27th of January 1908, Captain James T. Smith in command.
Assigned to the Armored Cruiser Squadron, Pacific Fleet, South Dakota cruised off the West Coast of the United States through August 1908. On the 24th of August, she departed San Francisco for a cruise to Samoa and headed eastward in September to operate in Central and South American waters. In the autumn of 1909, she deployed westward with the Armored Cruiser Squadron. The force called at ports in the Admiralty Islands, the Philippines, Japan, and China, before returning to Honolulu on the 31st of January 1910.
In February, South Dakota joined the USS Tennessee (Armored Cruiser No. 10) to form a Special Service Squadron which cruised off the Atlantic coast of South America and then returned to the Pacific later in the year.
Following operations along the Pacific Coast during much of 1911, South Dakota began a cruise in December with the Great White Fleets Armored Cruiser Squadron which took her from California to the Hawaiian Islands, the Marianas, the Philippines, and Japan. After returning to the West Coast in August 1912, she participated in periodic squadron exercises until she was placed in reserve on the 30th of December 1913 at the Puget Sound Navy Yard.
The picture below is of the USS Ohio (BB-12), USS California (ACR-6) and USS South Dakota (ACR-9) between May 1908 and July 1908 at Mare Island Navy Yard while assigned to the Great White Fleet. The cruisers are moored next to the yard's coal sheds. Note the coal handling equipment installed by the Brown Hoisting Machinery Company in 1904 seen above the coal sheds
Detached from the Reserve Force, Pacific Fleet, on the 17th of April 1914, South Dakota made a cruise southward into Mexican waters in June and another westward to the Hawaiian Islands in August. She returned to Bremerton on the 14th of September and reverted to reserve status on the 28th of September. She was the flagship of the Reserve Force, Pacific Fleet, from the 21st of January 1915 until relieved by Milwaukee (Cruiser No. 21) on the 5th of February 1916. She remained in reduced commission through 1916; and on the 5th of April 1917, she was again placed in full commission.
A picture of the USS South Dakota (ACR-9) at Mare Island Navy Yard circa Jan 1913. The collier USS Justin is behind and to the right of South Dakota and USS Annapolis (PG-10) is outboard of the Justin. Justin and Annapolis are at the yard's coal station. A rare image of the shipyard's stiff-leggd derrick with her steam driven winch is to the left of South Dakota.
Transferred to the Atlantic after the United States entered World War I, South Dakota departed Bremerton on the 12th of April. She joined Pittsburgh (ACR-4), Pueblo (ACR-7), and Frederick (ACR-8) at Colon, Panama, on the 29th of May 1917; then proceeded to the South Atlantic for patrol duty operating from Brazilian ports. On the 2nd of November 1918, she escorted troop convoys from the East Coast to the mid-Atlantic rendezvous point where British cruisers joined the convoy. Following the Armistice, South Dakota made two voyages from Brest, France, to New York, returning troops to the United States.
In the summer of 1919, South Dakota was ordered back to the Pacific to serve as flagship of the Asiatic Fleet, arriving at Manila on the 27th of October 1919. South Dakota was renamed Huron on the 7th of June 1920 and was designated CA-9 on the 17th of July 1920. She served in the Asiatic Fleet for the next seven years, operating in Philippine waters during the winter and out of Shanghai and Chefoo during the summer.
Ordered home, Huron departed Manila on the last day of 1926 and arrived at the Puget Sound Navy Yard on the 3rd of March 1927. She was decommissioned on the 17th of June 1927 and remained in reserve until she was struck from the Navy List on the 15th of November 1929. She was sold on the 11th of February 1930 for scrapping in accordance with the provisions of the London Naval Treaty for the limitation and reduction of naval armament.
Huron was stripped down to the waterline and then sold to the Powell River Company, Ltd. In August, 1931, the ship was towed to Powell River, British Columbia, Canada, to serve as a floating breakwater for a large logging mill. She was preceded the previous year by the former cruiser Charleston. Huron was anchored into position and periodically pumped out of rainwater to ensure she remained afloat. On the 18th of February 1961, a storm flooded the hulk of the old cruiser, and she sank in 80 feet of water, where she remains to this day. Strangely, some of the iron for her hull came from Texada Island, mere five miles from her Powell River resting place.
Watch ouit for the next instalment as a hint its another Pennsylvania-class armoured cruiser and it will be a tribute and I hope a truely fitting one to Rodger Cole aka Halfyank. Its certainly been a long time in the making the tribute/instalment that is.
Enough clues now.
Cheers
Sean
